The Road to Amendment
by The Almighty Afroduck
Summary: Cardin Winchester, the predator, the prey, the bully, the victim. There are always two sides to a coin, and Cardin is no exception. He is no kindly samaritan, he'll be the first to tell you, but it is not without reason nor out of lackwit. He's had his ups and his downs, so when life makes him choose between revenge and reconciliation, who's to say he'll make the wrong choice?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: Hello, everyone, I am The Almighty Afroduck, here to bring you a new story. It there's anyone at all that's coming from one of my other stories, you know how it goes. For those of you who don't, I have named my account in honor of the Afroduck, the greatest deity in the entire universe, and I try to write stories that break the mold one way or another. In this particular one based on a series created by our beloved Roosterteeth, I will narrate the story from Cardin's eyes. It's an AU, and like the summary suggests, my Cardin is better and worse than he is in the series. He isn't going to be the cardboard cut-out of a bully they've made him in the actual series, and he will have his reasoning. In fact, many characters in the series are considerably by-the-book archetypes that never step outside the book or what is considered cliché (in my personal opinion). That is something I will vastly change with this series. Without further ado, please enjoy this story to come.**

 **Introspective**

 _Alright, you wanna know who I am? No, you're not interested, I'm sure. I wouldn't be. You don't care any more for me than I do for you. I'm fine with that. In my new school, I would say that one out of every ten people I see absolutely hate my guts, the rest just barely tolerate me. I couldn't give a damn about that if I tried. I couldn't give a damn about everything I've done if I tried. I've met a few assholes to the heart in my time, and I've met more wannabe 'bad boys' that try to get all the chicks with their 'rebellious persona'. I'm neither. Deep down, I'm nothing more than an actual, shitty human being. I'm fine with that._

 _I've never been a very 'learned' man, and thankfully I've had strength to make up for it. I'm the last person who should have been admitted to Beacon, hell, it wasn't even my idea. But, here I am. I didn't choose this, but I may as well make the best of it. I'm not a good person, but this is a place for Hunters, not for saints, so I have a chance here. Want to see what becomes of me? Then follow me and shut the fuck up or leave, because I don't have patience for anyone anymore. Not that I ever had it._

* * *

 _She grabbed his smaller arms and danced, pulling him in circles with her. She smiled and laughed, her sweet voice echoing in his mind, prompting him to do the same. They remained that way, for one minute oblivious of the world's true, cruel face. He had to crane his neck back so he could look up at the tall girl's face, indigo eyes and auburn hair long enough to brush his own. She knelt in front of him, both still laughing as she removed a stray strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead. Pushing it behind his right ear, she put her hand on his cheek and caressed it._

 _His face twisted and turned in horror as a crimson flow of blood trickled from the upper right corner of her face. She didn't seem to notice even as more rivers of red began spouting from different places all around, from the corner of her mouth to above her left brow. "Cardin?"_

 _Tears flowed from his eyes as he tried to wipe it all away with his hands. He only succeeded in coating her whole face further as more flowed from new wounds to hide her pale complexion. He panicked when he found his hands horribly stained, blood remaining on them no matter how hard he tried to clean it off. He swiped them on his shirt and his pants, but they never dried and now his clothes were stained with her gore. "Cardin?"_

"Cardin Winchester?" The voice behind him snapped him out of his trance, and there was an elusive tone to it that the young man couldn't put his finger on. He looked around the room. It was still that same metallic grey in front of the same plain, metal table with a metal chair on the other side for someone to interrogate him. To finish squeezing out the last bit of information they didn't even need to lock him up. He sighed, grunting, "Yeah, yeah, you want me to confess my crime. First of all, fuck you. Second of all, hurry the fuck up so we can get this over with."

"Now that's hardly a wise tone to use with an authority, especially if he's granting you another choice." The man, now walking past him and taking a seat on the metallic chair across from him, hadn't been affected by his dismissive backtalk. Unlike the cops from a while back. Or maybe they had questioned him fifteen minutes before. He really couldn't tell in the damned, metallic room.

The man in question was tall, almost as tall as he was, with brown eyes hardly hiding behind small, shaded spectacles. He looked relatively young, but his hair had silvered nonetheless. It even seemed to suit him, suggesting early wisdom. He guessed he was near two meters tall, and if there was one thing Cardin prided himself at, it was at analyzing an opponent. He looked battle-worn, but there wasn't so much as a scratch on his face. Then again, his suit black and green almost completely covered him. He was one of those people especially dangerous, Cardin knew. The kind that knew _far_ more than they let on. "What are you saying?"

The man caught on to his weariness, no, he _predicted_ his weariness as he relaxed on the cold chair he sat on. "That you don't have to spend your life in prison if you take up my offer?"

"And what offer would that be? Meet a dealer and bring the supplies? Be a hitman? If you're looking to set me free, you can't have a good head on your shoulders." His growls and accusations were further ignored by the man when he simply shifted forwards slightly. "If you must know, I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy."

It took a while for the names to sink into Cardin's head. He wasn't smart, but he understood titles like those well enough to react quickly. After taking up enough of the headmaster's time to finally understand the situation, he began laughing hysterically. "You want me to be a student in your school? I never would have thought someone with a silver spoon up his ass to be this funny."

"I take pride in finding diamonds in the rough when I see them, and I do all I can polish them and make them the best they can be. But, one more outburst like that, and I'll personally see to your cell." Cardin stopped laughing then. This man wanted to make him get serious, a mistake for anyone that didn't truly know him. Being 'serious' was his terrible side. "Oh, what? So you can teach me the love that our beloved God has given us from the moment we were born? 'Oh, boy howdy I sure hope I can get to Beacon Academy this year! I wanna be a hero and kick butts and fight the Grimm and end the White Fang!' You know what? Save the bullshit and send me to jail. At least I can get a better sense of reality then."

Finally, the elder man smiled. No, Cardin was completely sure that something had gotten in his eye. Or maybe they'd gotten one of the aerial… _hallucinogenic_? No, maybe it was… never mind, he got it right. Maybe they'd placed hallucinogenic drugs somewhere in the room and had only him be exposed to it, because there was no way that 'Ozpin' should have been smiling at his rant. But, he was.

"I understand that you don't know who I am, but I would have thought you would know that my academy is a place for _Hunters_ , not heroes. If you accept, then you will have to become part of a team, get fighting clothes and a weapon, but it seems to me that you already have the latter two. Your skills are worth noting, you would do a well enough job at fighting the Grimm, it's your cooperation with others that has me doubting."

"If that's your way of saying I have to work with those animal _freaks_ , then the deal's off. No way in hell I'm going to play nice with them, not after everything that's happened." He let his fists loose when he noticed they became way too filled with pressure. Ozpin sighed and stood up, walking over to him and placing his hand on Cardin's shoulder, much to his annoyance.

"Anyone else that shared views as extremist as yours, I would have never even bothered wasting my time studying their profiles. I have been willing to make the exception with you only because you have been through much more than even most of my senior students ever have. You are capable of fighting, maybe even leading. You do not follow orders until you find out why they were give, but if you do, you make sure to learn that along the way. I respect that, maybe even admire it.

"But you knock down your entire potential to the dirt with the kind of judgement you hold. I understand your rancor better than most ever will, which is why I am willing to look past your attitude towards the Faunus on the sole condition that you seek improvement. And, if I were you, I would take my offer. With just how unstable society is getting to be, prisons are becoming rowdy and splitting up in gangs. You may have had experience in your neighborhood, but believe me when I say those criminals will not need the excuse of a dropped bar of soap to take the best of you. Or _from_ you, should I say."

Cardin paled at the thought. He was intimidating enough at nearly two meters and six centimeters, so he thought he would have prevailed in a place as tough as that. Then again, the thought of being overpowered by a group of… He lost the trail of thought when his mind didn't want to process the idea anymore. Ozpin took his hand from his shoulder and walked towards the door. Just about to leave, he turned his head halfway before giving a knowing lecture.

"Transport leaves next week, so you will have time to clean up, say goodbye and pack your things. I think I am not wrong in my actions to speak for your pardon and your entry in my school, am I?" All Cardin could do was shake his head, not feeling like he was able to do much more.

"Good." With that, Ozpin left Cardin to brood internally over his current situation.

 **Author's Notes: And that was the first chapter of this story. It's short, I know, but this is more prologue than introduction. What was Cardin's crime? What did his flashback mean? Why does he loathe the Faunus and why was Ozpin willing to look past it? All of these will be answered in time if you stick with me long enough to find out. Unfortunately, I won't update very quickly since I like to juggle my stories (and with this new one, there are now four) and inspiration doesn't always come to me in a flash. Either ways, hope you've enjoyed this, and please review on what you've enjoyed and what you haven't. It's what keeps me motivated.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: So I really want to do this story. I probably won't be able to update it as quickly as I am now, but I have quite a few ideas under my sleeve that I want to use on this story. Some of them won't be pretty, but I do plan to make this story as best as I can. Cursing is going to be rather common with certain characters, and most will say bad words at some point (c'mon, save for Ruby, everyone's seventeen). So, I bring forth the second chapter. Hopefully, it won't go as unnoticed as the first (but I do thank the select few of you who have followed, favorited and reviewed on this story).**

 **Departure**

 _She played a tune pretty to his ears on the piano, where many from the café enjoyed the music. When he recognized one of the songs, he'd sing along with it. Or try, rather. His voice was young and squeaked a few octaves higher than it should, but no one seemed to mind. They looked at him in terrible pity, though. But she encouraged him to continue doing so. "You have a good voice, Cardin, a pretty voice. You'll have an even better one when you get big and strong. Please don't waste it."_

 _When night fell and her shift ended, the jolly, middle aged, round bellied owner gave the young lady her share of the month with a fair tip. Asking to stay a little while longer, the elder man gave her the keys. After thanking him, she told the boy on the piano to sit beside her. He did, and so she continued teaching him about the piano. He liked the piano. He liked guitars and drums and basses too, but the piano was always sweet and melodic. His only problem was that he liked the sadder songs. Sometimes, they made him cry._

 _They left a bit later that night, stopping by the café owner's house to hand his wife the key, the woman already familiar with the two. Soon after, they entered a pharmacy, where the girl with hair so auburn it looked like fall incarnate asked for the 'curative cream' she kept talking about. He kept forgetting what 'curative' meant until she knelt in front of him. She fought tears when she dipped her forefinger in the dense, white substance and rubbed it over his left eye. He smiled. It stopped feeling so swollen now._

He blinked a few times before he looked around himself at the place he once used to call home. A terrible, shitty excuse for a home, but a home, nonetheless. Not that there was any other place would have him. He took a final look at ' _Schnee's Orphanage for the Poor and the Unfortunate_ '. He spit on the ground before the dull grey building and grabbed his bag in one hand. _Someday, I'm going to tear that damn place down, brick by brick._

He chose to wear the armor and wield the Mace today. He usually did whenever he could. Kept people wary and away from him. Helped them learn he wasn't the one they wanted to mess with. Not anymore. Besides, it helped that he wore one of his heaviest belongings and held the other so the bag wouldn't be such a pain in the ass. Walking towards where the Airships were landing, he couldn't help but see in the distance ' _The Club_ ' very mildly battered. Shame, he liked that place a lot. It must have been a hell of a fight to get it in such a state. Shame he missed it. Then again, he had been too busy… and getting caught.

His mind chose not to turn to that road again. He couldn't keep his cool for long if he got to that burning rage so quickly and so frequently. His mind chose to wander elsewhere instead, though not for long. He bumped into a Faunus with small antlers on his head. He nearly returned to his state of rage when the smaller man looked at him in fear and walked away briskly. He had to close his eyes and let out a very deep sigh. " _Freaks._ "

He went on about his stroll relaxed. It wouldn't be long before he entered Vale City's nicer part of town, where 'wrongdoers' like himself weren't around enough to annoy the richer residents. In his stead, as well as all those alike him, there were crooks of higher pay grades with more advanced weaponry and better vocabulary. He was glad they chose to stay there. He'd had his fair share of tussles with the higher classed criminals, and it grated every single one of his nerves how they always talked twice as much as they hit. Fights aren't meant to be talked over. Just throw the damned punch already and get it over with.

"Hey, you're Cardin Winchester, right?" He looked to his right and found a guy that looked to be his age running towards him from the end of the block. He groaned internally and hoped to whatever god there was that this wasn't some other fighter wannabe. He was a man with a green mohawk who, much to Cardin's surprise, hadn't run out of breath. The top of his head, not including his hair, barely just reached the base of his neck. So basically, he had average height.

"Yeah, what do you want?" His grunt didn't deter the new intruder from prying further as his plain blue eyes brightened at his answer. "Holy shit! You're even tougher up close than you are in the Warrior's Ring! Name's Russel Thrush by the way. Where are you heading?"

 _Great. A wannabe. Lucky me._ He shook his head for a bit, trying to hold himself back at least for a while before actually taking it out on someone. If he did that, he'd rather do it on someone or something that could at least put up a fight. One punch to this 'Russel' guy and he'd probably break him in two. No fun in that. "Valeport."

The shine grew brighter in Russel's eyes. _Please no._ "You're heading for Beacon too?!"

 _Fuck._ "Yeah. Just so happens that I got lucky enough to climb out of the local shithole high enough to make it. Gotta admit, I got lucky, too."

"No kidding. I've heard that the orphanage has some pretty bad at- _ah_ , never mind." He finished, rubbing the back of his now sweating neck. Having an internal strife on what to do with Russel, he chose to continue talking to him much against his better judgement. Maybe he could at least learn something about his soon to be school. "Well, anything and everything bad you've heard about the orphanage is actually worse, I'll tell you that much. Anyways, what can you tell me about Beacon?"

"Wait, you're not serious, right?" One glare from the larger man and Russel shrunk in response. Gulping a bit, he tried to keep himself straight and started. The key word is tried. "Beacon is one of the best academies in the world that trains Hunters to fight the–"

"I know _that_. Do you know anything about the school itself? The teachers? The training?" By the time he finished asking that question, they had entered Valeport. Settling on talking about it on the airship. Checking in, they chose to wait on the large vessel that awaited more students for takeoff. Once the plane was full, a guard came to check that all IDs matched. It disturbed Cardin greatly that his face and name was somewhere recorded and saved. He had to put those thoughts aside when Russel continued speaking.

"Well, I heard that Beacon has a starting test from a friend of a friend. He said we had to go through the school's outer forest and go through hordes of Grimm to get something and go back. I think he was talking out of his ass, though. Sounds a _liiittle_ bit too suicidal for a starting mission. I guess it's just going to be some pen and paper review of everything we've seen so far through high school. Hopefully combat is one of the tests."

Russel, Cardin concluded, talked too much. So he began working on how to tune out all the things he said that weren't important and listening on what actually was important. Problem was, he mixed the two in an almost perfect limbo that made him want to fall asleep standing. But, he heard the bit about the forest and Grimm. "What about the forest?"

"Hm? Oh, like I said, that guy probably didn't know what he was talking about when he said that fighting Grimm on the first day would be the first test. But I think we'll be going there every once in a while to test our skills against the beasts once we've spent enough time in the place. Wonder what the teachers will be like. Ozpin sure as hell looks like he could be hiding a tail and leading the White Fang with just how he acts around everyone."

Cardin wasn't sure if it was Russel or his friend's friend that talked out of his ass. Ozpin, the leader of the White Fang. He'd laugh in his face if he was in the mood for it. All he did instead was ignore him and offer a prayer to a god or a devil to make him shut up a bit more. But, the man with the mohawk _was_ right about one thing. Ozpin could be capable of anything and hide it under everyone's nose with his position and his alliances. _Or was it affiliations?_

" _Hello, and welcome to Beacon!_ " The two stopped to look at the hologram of a young woman, probably a teacher, with blond hair in a bun and green eyes. " _My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Hunters and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world._ "

The crowds huddled in the plain talked excitedly after her announcement, but there were a hundred and one things about Goodwitch's little speech that made Cardin punch a wall. He was almost sure, _no_ , he knew that the kind tone she used for her introduction would probably be the last time any of them would ever hear of her. She was a cold bitch to the heart, Cardin knew that at first glance. He wasn't smart when it came to subjects, but he knew people and how they worked.

Apart from the altruistic crap that made him puke internally, his mind returned to the incredible 'peace' they were all living in. Social classes couldn't be more separated if they tried, the assholes that made up the White Fang were becoming more aggressive, and that global 'peace' was shaky at best. If the woman actually thought it could be maintained, then Cardin was sure she had some problem when it came to understanding things. Heroes look pretty in the spotlight and admirable in the cameras, but it's the crooks that pull the strings and actually keep things from completely collapsing. Either she was lying to them all, which he could respect, or she and everyone else that taught at Beacon would be able to do nothing to save that 'peace'.

It made Cardin rub and grind the bridge of his nose with his fingers, the crease between his brows growing with his frustration. Alas, some cruel god of pranks or must have heard him, for a blonde nearly knocked him down in his sprint. Before he had time to process, fresh bile coated the bottom half of his right leg. He couldn't even be angry at the boy because his mind still worked on processing what had happened to him.

As a matter of fact, everyone looked at the scene in play, a brave few giggling at the sight. The rest looked as Cardin's face contorted in a white fury that made fighting Grimm feel like a better alternative. In turn, now apparently feeling better, the blonde looked at the mess he made and started chuckling nervously. He stopped immediately when he met the taller man's soul burning glare. Russel looked at the whole situation in shock, even offering a final sympathetic gaze to the blonde, the kind given to a dying man. "I am so, _so_ –"

"Do you have any idea how much I've had to _work_ for this armor?" He didn't even need to shout and his voice was still heard throughout the entire ship. Now the blonde looked half his size as he shrunk further and further. Or maybe he was crouching away from glowering eyes. "Do you have ANY idea how much–"

"Woah there, big guy. Vomit boy here couldn't control himself. I don't think he likes height too much. If it makes you feel any better, it's not just you! Look! I've got some on my boot!" He didn't even lower his gaze at the new, bustier blonde's boot. He could tell that the girl with a mane of hair and lilac eyes was trying to stop the situation from becoming slaughter, and held up her left foot so he could get a better look.

With a final decision, he gave an animalistic scowl to the boy on the floor and stormed to the other side of the airship, all other students eager to stay out of his path. Finding his bag, he opened it and found a large piece of cloth he used to clean his armor. Much to his disgust, he had to scrub with a fair amount of strength the stickier parts of the projectile that had landed on his leg. Russel stopped talking after that. By the time he was done, the airship stopped moving. Getting out of his seat to leave the vessel, he was met with the majestic sight of Beacon before him and all the other rookies.

 **Author's Notes: Well, in case it wasn't clear before, I'm confirming it now. This is an AU, so I chose this to be Jaune's introduction to Cardin, a rather crappy one for the latter, as well as a small bit of Yang. Anyways, I'm sure there are more than a few questions unanswered with this chapter, and this is the system I'll be following for a while. Overall, I hope you've enjoyed, and please do review. It motivates me to continue onwards with this story.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. So, here I bring you the next chapter. Let's hope we can get this story moving and that we can become a bit of a larger crowd in due time. But alas, canon Cardin's douchy nature repels all! But like hell I'll give up, so right now, enjoy the next chapter (quite a bit longer, for a change).**

 **Arrival**

" _So, what have you learned today?" Her tone was sweet, looking down at him with a smile just as kind on her face. He grinned a grin with a few gaps here and there, a pair of his teeth having fallen out a week and a half past. "How to play more of the piano!"_

" _And the song?" He furrowed his brows and his grin had gone when he thought deeply on her question. Night had long since fallen since the two left the coffee shop and now they strolled back to the orphanage. He smiled again quickly enough when he remembered what soon became his favorite tune. "The dancing bear and the maiden fair!"_

" _Why hello, Lucy. Got the money?" He couldn't see the man in the dark, but his voice seemed familiar enough. It made her jolt and him try to peek at the shadow in the alley. What little he could have seen was blocked by the girl with long, auburn hair standing between the too. "Damn it, Orion, you aren't giving me enough time! I've been working nonstop at the Café since the start of–"_

" _Have you considered other 'better paying' professions that could help you out?" He was too small to look past her at the man's face, but a part of him knew he was smiling. The times he'd met them before he usually smiled. It was the only part he usually saw of him while the rest lied in shadows. "Go to hell, Orion. Besides, I've got your damn money. Now leave us alone."_

 _She shoved a small bag into the silhouette of his hands, prompting him to chuckle as he tossed the bag into the air and caught it again multiple times. He couldn't see his face, but he could tell the mystery man was looking at him. The way he tilted his head let him see his teeth better, a good pair of fangs sticking out and a thin, slippery tongue shaking out through the two rows of white. "Keep it up, Lucy. Might be that little Cardin won't have another black eye for a long time to come."_

He looked up at the place with a sort of medieval-castle feel to it. There was far too much open space wherever he looked and not enough guards or sentry towers or any kind of basic defense. Anyone with an average pair of eyes could see that this place was greatly under protected if one realized that this was the place meant to train the next generation of Hunters. He smiled. _Hiding it all and keeping the element of surprise. They're good. Gotta respect that._ "Hot damn, this place is even bigger than it is in the news!"

"Do you say that about every new thing that you find?" This time, he didn't even bother holding himself back from pissing on Russel's overly 'profound' statements. The young man didn't bite back, however. Russel probably presumed that it was the freshly scraped-off puke that had made him so irritable now. He was right about that, sure, but blatant idiots had a special place in his heart as well. The place where all things that wanted to have their asses handed to them went.

"Sorry, man, didn't mean to piss you off. We should- _uh_ , go inside with everyone else, right?" _Great, now he's afraid of saying anything. Why can't people just understand that saying obvious crap really annoys the rest of the world?_ He shook his head in a sort of disappointment and sighed. "Yeah, yeah, let's just go."

The two walked the rest of the way in relative silence, getting closer to the main walkway that led to the academy. _I wonder how much they'll charge us for our stay. Then again, Ozpin was probably more than aware of my money situation when we met. Maybe he'll have me doing favors or missions or dirty work for me to repay him. Hell if I'd be surprised._ A girl's extremely loud, extremely annoying bickering led him to want to steer clear of the situation.

Against his better judgement, however, he turned his head and found a white haired, white clothed girl scolding another with a red and black hood. The second was lying on the ground, along with a fairly large amount of pristine white suitcases which Cardin immediately guessed belonged to the first. A lone vial rolled for the whole of ten meters before stopping by his feet. He squinted his eyes, recognizing the Dust before him and picking up the glowing, pale blue bottle. It was cold enough for him to conclude that it was Ice Dust, and for a second he considered taking it with him. The girl looked like she had enough for the whole school.

 _No_ , he internally growled, _I'm no thief._ There were things far worse than stealing, Cardin knew, things he was responsible for. But hell, if he took something from someone else without their consent, it was because he damn well earned it. Russel looked at him in question, and he simply tilted his head towards the bickering two. She was in the middle of a lecture which the supposed troublemaker had earned when he called loud enough. "Hey, princess! You dropped this!"

She only had enough time to look his way before he tossed it at her, the snow haired girl catching it just in time. She looked shocked for a minute before immediately starting to fume. "Are you insane?! Do you have any idea on how much damage you could have caused if this vial of Dust hit the ground?!"

He smiled at her angry response. Where most others would have been annoyed, some pissed and even some scared, he remained calm. He had had experience with snobby brats before to know how not to let them get on his nerves. "First off, _princess_ , that's a strange way of saying 'thank you'. Second of all, if you couldn't catch a glass bottle in the time I gave you, then you sure as hell aren't fit to stay in a _monster_ hunting Academy. And thirdly, has anyone ever told you how much more beautiful you would be if you kept that pretty little mouth of yours shut more often?"

Somehow, she had enough speed and reach to slap him across the face. The hooded girl and Russel gasped at that in disbelief, and soon had their eyes widen along with the stuck-up's own when he smiled grew more. "Oh, you're breaking my heart, sweetheart. Now then, if you want actual advice, then here's a heads-up: don't think that your bag, you clothes, your money or your name are the center of the universe, because the thing is, _no one_ cares. Got that, princess?"

She stammered and stopped here and again, trying to regain whatever composure she had before the hooded girl even started the mess they were all in. Said girl looked nervously between the two as if something was going to explode while Russel cracked and wheezed to not burst out laughing in front of the stuck-up. Cardin could only imagine 'Snow White' had never had someone talk to her like that, and it gave him a big amount of pleasure and pride to be the first. It wasn't until a fifth's footsteps brought their attention, especially since she had another of the Dust mini containers in her hand.

"It's heiress, more like. The 'princess' you're talking to is Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Companies and all other secondary corporations that they own, though their Dust Companies are the better known for being some of the largest producers in the world." And just like that, Cardin immediately regretted handing the bottle back to her. He would have been inclined to knock her out clean and take at least one of her briefcases, but he knew he was already on thin ice with Ozpin. His toned changed into a growl when he looked at Schnee's now satisfied face from what he could only guess was her reaction at her fame being recognized.

"You forgot to mention all the worthless charities and shitty orphanages they're responsible for making." Her pride was gone as she turned around with her face red and flustered, though not a fraction of a match for his own scowl. The girl in black who had entered the discussion added, "Not to mention controversial labor forces and questionable business partners, among other things."

"I-why-how dare-the _nerve_ of you!" Cardin watched as Schnee practically tore the Dust in the girl's hand from her before storming off with her cart with many briefcases. Or rather with the _people_ taking her cart with her many briefcases for her. The man took a deep breath as his eyes met the girl with black hair and golden eyes. _Looks as good as the heiress, but I've seen better. At least she doesn't stand for bullshit, so that's something._ She met his stare and they stayed that way for a few seconds before silently and mutually agreeing to part paths. Just like that, they went their separate ways, leaving the hooded girl while Russel stayed with him like a stray dog.

"Hey, a couple of good buddies of mine made it to Beacon, too! Maybe we should meet up with them, 'cause I hear we're gonna be in teams for a _long_ while here. Don't worry, they're cool." _As cool as you?_ He wanted to ask, but his mouth did not move and his throat did not hum. Instead he just nodded, allowing the mohawk-man to lead the way. He beamed at that, immediately getting out his scroll and typing into it before putting it to his ear. "Where the hell are you? You guys will _not_ believe who I'm with right now. Get out to the school doors so we can– our ship was one of the last ones to arrive _you asshole_ , otherwise we'd already be inside with you! Now come out, I can't– never mind! I see you!"

With that, he closed his device, Cardin shifting his gaze from Russel to the giant gates that opened up to the academy. Several small groups of students entered it with green looks on their faces, likely more excited first years. Apart from them stood two young men with their arms crossed, looking his way. One had light brown hair combed to the left, covering the better part of his forehead while the other had slick gray-blue hair combed back, barely reaching the end of his neck.

The first raised both of his brows and opened his mouth like an idiot while the other raised one of his slick brows and smiled slightly when the two saw him. Both wore armor torso upwards and enough to cover their hips, and that gave Cardin reason to respect them more than the average student in 'pretty' and 'fashionable' clothes. All he damn near prayed for was that they wouldn't annoy him as much as Russel. At least the guy with the slick blue hair looked like he wasn't going to fanboy over him. When the pair reached the two, the first to speak was the one with the combed bowl cut hair.

"Holy _shit_ , Russel, how much did you have to pay Cardin _fucking_ Winchester to walk with you?!" _Really? Another one? He brings up a good point, though. I should've charged Russel for sticking with him for so long without him losing any parts of his body._ The one with slick hair only chuckled, almost too quietly for him to hear. He looked up at him directly in the eyes and with that same smirk asked, "I'm guessing you must have patience made of iron too, right? I'm surprised you haven't shoved your mace up Russel's ass so far. You have my respect."

He hadn't expected the statement. Of course, he only reacted logically as he would when hearing something like that. The reaction being, of course, bursting out with laughter and gripping his stomach with all his might. _Now there's a guy who gets it._ He stood up straight and nearly collapsed again when he saw Russel's betrayed look while the _actual_ funny man just kept his smirk and winked at him. The fourth one was laughing, though not as hard as he had. _Probably used to it by now._ The man with gray blue hair continued. "Right, name's Lionel Sky, and the guy next to me is Dove Bronzewing. Hope you have a stomach for idiots, because the Tweedledum with you can't shut up and Tweedledee right here thinks he's the shit."

"Oh right, I'm Lionel Sky, the only _cool_ pretty boy with _style_ within the entire kingdom of Vale. I braid my hair, paint my nails, and keep a polished dildo right up my _–AH_!" A good elbow to the stomach silenced 'Dove', while Lionel kept an expression cold as ice. Cardin found himself laughing again. _This might not be so bad after all._ Russel decided to come between the two, holding his hands up in an attempt of keeping them away from each other. "Alright, alright, I'm sure we can do this once we're inside. Come on, I think I see Ozpin coming up a ramp."

Cardin turned his head and jogged with the three, soon sticking to a place towards the back. Fortunately for him, he was tall enough to see all the way to where the headmaster of the Hunter academy walked closer to a microphone. With silent footsteps, he cleared his throat and began, "I'll… keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

"Great. One nice, big motivational speech to help keep our spirits _bright_ and _shining_ for the rest of our years here." Dove's scoff made the group chuckle and Cardin's mouth to twist lightly into a smile. _Funny how he isn't even lying._ Then Ozpin turned his cold stare towards the back of the podium and met his gaze. "But I look amongst you today and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove the knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

For a second, Cardin wondered if Ozpin had written the speech for all the students attending or if he had directed his last words at him specifically. For a second he remembered her long, burnt colored hair and her sweet words before shaking his mind away from her. Then Goodwitch stepped up in Ozpin's leave. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed!"

"Well now I'm ecstatic." Lionel's cold remark made Cardin laugh again, the other two cracking up quickly too. Russel looked outside, prompting the other three to look through the great windows that showed the sun setting. It was a fading shade of orange, darkness overwhelming the sky with the great shattered moon appearing on the other side. The boy with the mohawk called the three, "We should get going. We probably have bathrooms to change in, so we should be the first in and the first out. I mean, come on. Do you wanna miss the chance to see all the 'great views' in the ballroom tonight?"

"For once, Russel's got a point, but you should listen to my advice. Perverts who look at every 'great view' they find end up never touching them. Let's go." Cardin's soft bark led them to follow him towards the communal restrooms. By the time he got there, he began undressing, putting his mace beside his bag and taking out the boxers he slept in. His shower was quick, and he always kept an eye open and a fraction of the curtain unclosed to ensure no one would be stupid enough to steal from him. No one did, and he got into his sleepwear quickly enough.

He got closer to the mirror to comb his hair and he took a good look at the figure before him. Beneath the armor was a body with skin strained and nothing but condensed muscles below. His pecks were large and strong and a well-developed eight pack looked seasoned with training, signs that he had earned all his strength. But when Cardin looked at a mirror, he never checked himself out, he left that for the richer, self-absorbed assholes from the richer part of Vale city. Instead, he looked at the many scars that painted his body so differently from everyone else's.

His finger slowly etched towards a light pink one that started at the right of the base of his neck and took a long turn downwards towards where his left pectoral ended. He flinched at the touch, his hair prickling at the memories it brought back. He shook his head and finished combing his hair and placed his 'lucky charm' around his neck before meeting the others. He watched them observing the closed wound and many more that varied in size, shape and type and quickly grunted, "Don't ask."

Russel and Dove held their hands up defensively while Lionel silently nodded, his face with as much emotion as a stone. With that, the four grabbed their belongings and walked out of the place, the current 'leader' getting a few looks from other students around. Finally, they made it to the ballroom. Not the first, but the place was still almost empty. Setting out their sleeping bags, the laid down there as they began to talk with the room filling up more and more as students got ready for the next day.

"So, what was it like to become the new champion of the Warrior's Ring?" Russel asked the tallest of the group. Cardin gave him a tremendous glare with Dove quietly remarking, " _Talk louder, why don't you? It's not like anyone would mind us talking about an underground, illegal fight club and mentioning one of the participants which could be tried for doing such prohibited actions._ "

Russel's eyes widened and immediately covered his mouth, uttering a 'sorry' that managed to somewhat defuse Cardin's reaction. The redhead sighed, whispering, " _Well, how the hell do you think I felt? I felt strong, powerful, like the place became my own kingdom. It was like being assured that you gained a form of invincibility, that you were recognized as the Alpha. And then I lost the money and the place got destroyed. Someone who wasn't a bastard decided to remake it with fairer rules and I got my chance to shine, but I lost everything I had earned. All I fought for was stolen from me after I felt more glory than I could have dreamed of. How the hell do you think that felt?_ "

" _Right, sorry. If it makes you feel any better, everyone that's seen 'The Good Fight' knows you for how strong you really are._ " Russel tried to bring the man's spirits up but Cardin looked away from the group and at the now filled hall instead. _I didn't do it for the glory._ Shifting his attention, he looked at a group of wannabe fighters posing for the blonde that stopped him from pummeling 'vomit boy' to the ground. Speaking of which, he came up in a one-piece pajama with bunny feet and winked at the blonde who looked away. _Funny, if he hadn't vomited, he might have earned some respect for pulling that off without a second thought._

Now he chose to stand, attracting some attention from the students that looked at his many scars. Some of the 'stronger' ones that had posed before the girl immediately scattered as he made his way past them. Now he looked at the small, no longer hooded girl from before talking to the other girl in black from before. He decided now would be as good a time as any to make conversation that wasn't about his past. He was close enough to hear, "…Unfortunately, the world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

"Well that's why we're here, to make it better." _Great, an actual kid at Beacon. I wonder how the hell Ozpin let her through._ The blonde girl was about to jump on little red riding hood, but his comment cut everyone off. "Sorry to disappoint, kid, but that's not how it works."

"Wait, you're that huge guy from before and– wait, what do you mean?" The way she asked made it seem like she was actually completely oblivious. The blonde raised a brow, and though he didn't look her way, he knew she was looking at him up and down. He had to admit, she was one of the better looking ones entering the academy, but right now, she wasn't why he was there. "Kid, let me tell you something. The very reason we have positions like political presidents, hunter headmasters and military generals is because the strong have always preyed on the weak. The reason we've created those positions in the first place is to make the preying legal and avoid any more legal trouble with people doing just that outside of the law."

"Wow, you're a pretty big downer, huh?" Now the blonde entered the conversation, grabbing the younger's shoulder protectively and looking at him in surprise. The one in black looked at him disappointingly, but said nothing. He smiled a bitter, empty smile and continued, "Listen, Goldie, I'm just being a realist and saving your friend the trouble of falling on her ass for not knowing better. Think I'm wrong? Tell me why we're named Hunters and not Monster Hunters or Grimm Hunters."

She looked a bit pissed at the 'Goldie' nickname, but looked more like she hated a similar name and not that one. _I'll keep that in mind._ He laughed rather loudly when he realized none had an answer to his question. "We're Hunters because we don't need to go fifty miles into a wild forest to look for beasts to kill. We only need to go outside into the city and take a big look around us to know where to start shooting."

"You know you don't need to be a cynic about it." The girl in black's almost sad remark brought him to smile victoriously as he turned her way. " _HA!_ I knew you were hiding something! In fact…"

He got close enough to her to bring himself to his knee and get face to face with her. His tone was barely above a whisper and his smile went from bitter to the bastard of a knowing and a cruel one. "I'll bet _everything_ I have, my money, my armor and weapons, hell, my _soul_ on the fact that you're here because you're running away from something. Go ahead. Tell me that you aren't hiding some big secret from the world right now."

The way she opened her eyes so widely and kept them that way for so long led him to know that he was right. In fact, she looked downwards either in shame or in regret as soon as she stopped making eye contact with him. Now he stood up again and gave her space again, looking at the two from before shocked by the encounter. More than anything, they looked stunned by how he seemed to be right about what he talked about. _Goddamn right. I didn't get to where I am by bullshitting my way here._

"What in the world is going on he– _you_." That tone reminded him of the fourth girl he had met that day. For a second he closed his eyes, using every bit of his power to not choke her then and there. He found Schnee with her arms crossed looking at him with the kind of glare the snobby rich give to the poor bastards on the street lying in their way. "Yes, me. Me, me, big old, fucking me. _What are you gonna do about it?_ "

She was intimidated by the way he was already up in her face with a glare rivaling an Ursa's. She tried to compose herself and not give away anymore fear than she already had because of his overwhelming aura of rage. "S-s-some of us are trying to _sleep_ , so we would all be thankful if you could keep it down."

"Says the unmistakably bitchy princess that spends the better part of her day screaming at the world for giving her a golden spoon and not a diamond-encrusted one." They all turned their head at Lionel Sky, who stood there with an actual stony expression. She was too shocked to respond, face flustering in rage again when the young man simply looked at Cardin and tilted his head back at where the other two waited. Cardin laughed and called, "Well, ladies, it's been nice enough talking to you all, but I best get going."

When they were away from the ticking time-bomb of a group, Cardin looked at the smaller companion and said, "Holy hell, I owe you one. I don't think I'd have lasted long with Schnee around."

"It's fine, just answer me one thing." Cardin nodded. The man had certainly earned as much, and as of yet, he had not even inched towards his bad side. Lionel observed the item on the larger man's neck and questioned, "Is that really his…?"

Cardin's smile faded in a second's time at his question, but he wasn't mad at Sky. Instead, he grabbed the foot-long horn tied with several strings of leather to turn into a necklace. He rubbed it for a bit, telling apart the dull grey from the rich brown within the dim light of the ballroom. He closed his eyes for a minute as a thousand memories surged into his mind. He nodded.

 **Author's Notes: So, more insight on Cardin's past and his way of thinking. Also, some interactions with (pre-)RWBY and his soon-to-be-team CRDL. Also, I know his name is Sky Lark, but I can't stand the initials being everyone's name and then one guy's last name, so I made some slight adjustments to it. Well, hope you've enjoyed overall and please review on what you liked (or didn't).**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: Happy New Years, guys! I bring you yet another chapter of this fic! It's not the longest I've written, I know (sorry), but I wanted to post it for you all! By the way, some of you have been asking if Cardin will fall into the antihero or fullblooded bully category, and I can only say time will tell. I'll leave it to you all to guess which will happen with what you've seen so far of his personality and his past. Now then, enjoy!**

 **Tooth and Nail, Fang and Claw**

" _Lucy?" he called, the older girl turning her head at his question. The tall, long-haired girl raised a brow worriedly when she saw him sadly fidgeting his hands together. She stood up from her bed in their room and walked over to his own. Neither was pretty, and both were incredibly hard. It made him wonder if they were made of stone. Still, she sat behind him and placed a caring hand on his shoulder, asking, "What's wrong, sweetie? Are they being mean to you at school again?"_

 _He had forgotten the two bullies at school that took his money whenever they found him. One had dog ears, and he thought that would have made him nicer like all good dogs. It didn't. He thought human-animals worked backwards to their animals and that that would make the dog-boy's boar-friend be nicer. He was wrong and got hit for it. But they were a year older than he was, so they didn't share classes in school and it was easier for him to avoid them. It was their home that had him like that. He licked his hard teeth, none of the older soft ones remaining. "When can we leave the orphanage?"_

" _Oh, Cardin, you know the answer to that. I'm still fifteen, so it'll be three more years until I can move out and bring you with me. You need to be strong until then." She brought his head to her lap and caringly stroked his head. For a while, he forgot what he had been sad about with her so close. His brows furrowed, trying to remember the man in the shadow's name. "Lucy, who's Orion?"_

 _She stopped stroking his head then and softly turned his head to look at him worriedly. She was slow about her words. "Cardin, you must never, ever repeat that name, especially here. Please forget that name from your head, there are things you don't need to worry about yet. You're only eleven. Right now, focus on your school and your music lessons. You're doing so much better each time…"_

 _He smiled and took his head off her lap to face her, "That's because of you, Lucy! You're so great, I'm only sort of good thanks to you!"_

 _She laughed sweetly, hugging his head to her chest as he giggled when she picked him up and spun him around. After giving him a kiss on the brow, she murmured, "You're a sweet boy, Cardin, and you'll become a great man when you're older. Remember that, Cardin, no matter what."_

* * *

He grunted and rubbed his eyes, sunlight intrusively ending his slumber. He could hear a girl's singing, but couldn't truly process her words. He wished it was the type of serene humming that raised one's spirits first hour in the morning. It wasn't. If he had to describe it, he would say the sound was the human incarnation of a trumpet. Played by a talentless drunk. He growled loudly and got up, blinking a few times to take the sight in better. Several were waking up just as groggily as he had thanks to the loudmouth, one in particular having a resigned expression on his face. She kept singing to him in particular, but seemed to do it so the whole city would hear.

He tapped her shoulder twice, leading her to turn around with that big, oblivious smile on her face and yell, "Wow, you're huge! Betcha Grimm are gonna be running when they see you! Not that you're ugly, you're, uh… how can I put it? INTIMIDATING! Got it! And you're glare is _really_ killing it! It's almost like you're already looking for something to kill and-"

"Nora." The man with long hair and a single, neon pink lock at its front caught her midsentence. She turned and fake pouted at him, unaware of the disturbance she was causing. "Not now, Ren! Can't you see I'm having an interesting conversation with-"

" _Nora._ " She groaned in annoyance, about to tell her friend off when Cardin gave a loud grunt. She raised her brow when she looked at him, taking her time to connect the dots until she finally understood the reason behind the heavy black bags under his bloodshot eyes. She blushed, closing her eyes and rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, big guy, I got carried away! I get carried away a lot, and sometimes I can get really, really _loud_ , but I don't hear myself talking so loud 'cause I don't-"

"NORA." Somehow, the young man did not shout but his voice came across really loud. She opened her eyes to find Carding scowling, his right eye twitching vehemently. Now she was more nervous than embarrassed, starting to walk backwards and away from him. " _Weeell_ , _itwasnicemeetingyousorryforwakingyouupBYE_!"

And then she ran off, taking the man's hand and forcing him to run with them. It took much of Cardin's willpower to not chase after them with his Mace, finding that he would do everything he could to avoid 'Nora'. She was the type of person that didn't talk to people as much as she yelled in their direction. He was fine with loud, but not borderline deafening. He stuck his pinky finger in his right ear, giving it a few twists before getting out the white noise from his head.

His stomach's continuous growls led him to remember why he would have still woken up if the obnoxious redhead hadn't beat him to it. He looked behind him to find the three acquaintances he gained either getting up or stretching. A tilt of the head, and the four left for the cafeteria. Grabbing a tray, Cardin took a deep breath before entering the buffet like-area, mentally preparing himself for a hundred and one different types of gruel to be served on his plate. He was given a surprise when a sweetened aroma filled his nostrils.

He awkwardly walked to the place where breakfast was served, half expecting it to be a farce of the sorts. He remained in a short state of shock when he found actual food waiting to be served upon. It wasn't that he expected the food to be as crappy as the orphanage's, but he assumed taste was too unimportant to take into account, expecting the Hunters to bake vitamin and protein-filled porridge. He served himself carefully, almost fearing that the food would bite in spite of his belly's constant complaints.

He filled up until two plates were entirely filled up, half expecting someone to chastise him for breaking a rule about the food he didn't know of. No one came, and he sat slowly on an empty part of the great tables. _Rookie privileges, maybe?_ But when he put the first bite in his mouth, he started ravaging every bit of the meal on his tray. By the time the other three sat down, he had already consumed half of his mixture of scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, and too many other things with names he couldn't remember or even know. All he knew was that his tray was filled with delicious food and it hadn't been poisoned, and that was enough.

"Slow down, will you? It'd be freaking hilarious if a freshman died choking on his food on the first day, though." Apparently, Dove didn't fear him as much as Russel did, so Cardin gave a growl before continuing to ravage everything in front of him. Lionel looked like he couldn't care less and shrugged before sitting down across from the hungry beast, Dove beside him. Russel sneaked to Cardin's side and placed his tray a fair distance from the giant's own, preferring to avoid the scenario of losing his breakfast to the current leader of the group. "I've had enough of the orphanage's shit for food for a lifetime, so I think I'm going to enjoy myself while I'm here."

"That bad, huh? Didn't need to place it all on a tray though, I mean you could get seconds." Russel's remark made Cardin stopped, fork still in the air as he turned to the younger man. "You're telling me I can get _seconds_?"

"Well yeah, it's not like they'll dislocate your jaw or any-" He stopped midsentence when Cardin tore off the bite from his fork and near ran back to the buffet. It wasn't long before he came back with the same amount of food, maybe more. Dove stared at the giant, sarcasm filling his tone. "Well, it's a good thing we teamed up with a bear. For a second there I thought you might have anorexia."

The group chuckled but Cardin didn't hear them. He finished his second serving even faster than his first, not having known refills were an option at the academy. When he was done, he placed a hand and rubbed his belly with the queer satisfaction of getting his stomach full without lynching his wallet. He looked at the other three, all staring at him with the discomfort they would have if they found a feral animal out of its cage. He sighed, "Back at the orphanage, we got 'house porridge'. That was their name for the gruel they gave us. They used old meat to make it if there was any, though I _do_ remember seeing a rat there once or twice. Anyone asked for seconds and the _lovable_ chef would give us a taste of his wooden spoon."

"Jesus…" Cardin' knew Dove's shock was genuine when he saw he didn't look very hungry anymore. Russel was picking his food when he finished hearing the man's experience. For once, he didn't want to pick on the smaller companion, he even felt a bit guilty at intimidating him the day before. If he had to guess, Cardin would say some of the things he said hit close to home. Lionel maintained his expressionless face, but it seemed to be less hard than before. "Well, what happened is in the past and no one can change that, so we might as well get up and get ready for the 'initiation'. I get the feeling that how well we do will make Freshman Hell Week better or worse for us. Either ways, I'm done here and I've spent too much time without my Mace."

While Cardin still had things like his lucky charm and his pajama on, as did everyone else, all other luggage and equipment had to stay in their assigned lockers. He felt naked without any of his weapons nearby, but he sucked it up and heeded the commands anyways. To the best of his understanding, at least during their first day, they would get free reign to use their weapons. That had been enough to convince him of leaving his arms and weapons within the designated facilities. It wasn't long before they geared up and headed outside, though not before they bumped into Schnee along the way. This time, she had had the sense to glare at them but walk away in silence. Cardin returned the gesture and soon found himself before the cliff facing forest within the academy's grounds.

Small, metal squares had their names on them, leading them to stand atop them as they waited for further instructions. Stomping a few times, he found the ground under the plate to be missing. The others gathering nearby caught his attention, especially at the final two arrivals. Ozpin and Goodwitch stood in front of them, the former holding his cup while the latter had a tablet scroll.

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin began. _Not a far cry, no._ Goodwitch looked up from her scroll and continued, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to that confusion."

 _Then by all means, enlighten us and hurry the fuck up_ , Cardin thought, though chose not to voice it. Ozpin took over again, "Each of you will be given teammates today. These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

" _What?!_ " Cardin heard the squeal from the crater-girl he'd spoken to the night before. Many of the first years were muttering nervously, including two of the three acquaintances to his right. Lionel kept a cool image, seemingly caring more about the clouds in the sky than the headmaster's speech. Cardin just shrugged. _Hell, if you got stranded in a forest filled with massive beasts that want to kill you, the first person you'd find there would be your ticket to surviving._ "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."

 _Now there's something strangely familiar._ Where others gulped at the words, Cardin found himself smiling sourly at the situation. Unfortunately, he had had more than enough experience getting the shit-end of the stick to know how to handle situations where the odds were against him. Ozpin looked at their expressions coldly before going on, "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Cardin looked over to the other three, Russel looking a bit anxious. _I'll be damned. Russel wasn't talking out of his ass and even he's surprised about that._ The thought made him chuckle, and he laughed a bit when the headmaster ignored vomit-boy's question. At Ozpin's command, everyone got into a stance which Cardin quickly deduced would be for takeoff. They started sending them off from the corner on the left, soon getting to his three companions. Taking it upon himself to look at where they would land, he figured he'd find a way to gang up with them. He didn't feel like making introductions all over again.

Russel was the last of the three to get vaulted over to the forest, giving him a two-fingered wave before being launched into the forest. Taking his Mace, he gripped it with all his might and waited for the moment to come. It came too fast for him, and he could only see the trees rushing and hear the winds screaming at first. He managed to get himself into a bullet-like stance, allowing the air to stop posing resistance to his large form. He could see figures of the others, some farther away than others. For a second, he could have sworn he heard someone cheering. Then he found Goldie using some sort of shotgun gauntlets to propel herself forwards.

He took his mind off her and focused on what was in front of him when his descent began. Squinting his eyes, he gripped his Mace as he smacked and exploded away several tree tops that could have given him injuries he didn't need to start the day with. Losing speed and allowing himself to glide with his whole body facing forwards like a great log himself, he reversed his 'bullet pose' by putting his feet first. This time, his boots sank into the middle of the great pillar of oak and stayed there with a loud _crack_. He heard the natural column moan as several branches broke off. Having the results he expected, Cardin smiled and gripped the tree that soon fell forwards.

The weight of his form knocked it down in such a way that by the time it met the floor, Cardin was standing upright. With a bit of effort, he pulled his legs from the fresh, wooden corpse and fondled the handle of his grand weapon as he kept an eye out to his surroundings. A green blur sped past him above, and he immediately knew to whom it belonged. Jogging lightly, he saw Russel scratching several branches to slow down before stabbing fiercely a final tree. With his large, sharpened daggers digging deep into the timber, he slid down quickly enough to the floor. _He's light-footed, it's probably for the best if we team up. He has the speed, I have the strength._

By the time he was done cleaning his dual weapons, Russel turned around to find Cardin jogging towards him. He gave a big smile knowing with whom he had paired up with so quickly, following him when the larger man nodded his head towards the north. The smaller of the two looked around a bit before speaking, "You know, I heard from a friend's uncle that-"

"Russel, you don't need to name whoever the hell told you what you're gonna tell me now, and chances are I'm never meeting that person anyways. Just say what you heard and leave it at that." Unlike the previous day's scolding, this time Cardin went on about it more reflectively and in turn Russel didn't take it harshly. He nodded, "Well, I heard that Beowolves tend to hunt in packs in the woods."

"That's obvious, anything that can _actually_ help us?"

"I was getting to that. They hunt in packs in the woods because that's the easiest way for them to hide and dodge any attacks Hunters have. From what I've heard, only one of every five will chase its victim all the way out into an open field." At Russel's tidbit, Cardin replied, "So if we hear the howling, we run out into the open. Fair enough."

"The best areas away from Grimm are rare to find. If you're out in the field, Nevermores will spot you, and if they don't, then you're probably entering Tauri territory. Stick in the average woods and you'll find Beowolves and maybe Ursai if you're near a pond. If you find a large cave, then there's probably a Death Stalker waiting for you. If you find a large crater in the woods, then it's the two-headed King Taijitu that you'll find. Boarbatusks and Creeps stick mainly to abandoned cities in ruins and Goliaths… I can't really remember." Though Russel was rubbing his head sheepishly at the last part, or rather lack of it, Cardin was fairly impressed with his knowledge. "Hell, and all this you heard from a friend's uncle?"

Russel smiled slyly when Cardin mentioned what he'd just cast out. Cardin rolled his eyes and waited for an answer, which the companion gladly gave. "Yeah, he was a drunken ex-Hunter. Got tired of the paranoia, danger, betrayals, double-life, secret societies and all and blew all of his money on hookers, booze and drugs. Pretty sad, but the man sure knew his shit to remember all of that."

"So he did…" Cardin suddenly doubted the truth behind Russel's words. He could tell the young man was convinced he was telling the truth, but the source didn't sound very convincing now. At least he could see the logic behind most of the Grimm's normal habitats Russel named, so he would entertain the idea and believe him. He heard gunshots and a long howl in the distance, which seemed to be getting slightly louder the longer it lasted. Cardin frowned. "Guess that's our cue to leave the forest, isn't it?"

"You got it." With that they both ran a fair distance to hear more fighting, thankfully followed by gunshots and slashing noises. Jogging to an opening in the woods, they found Dove and Lionel face to face with a _very_ large Boarbatusk. The beast was at least twelve feet tall, far greater in length and wide enough to look like a wall of black and white death. Its spine had grown out three rows of spikes and to mark its age, the great brute had a second pair of sharpened tusks. Dove and Lionel were doing a good enough job at getting even with the strong fiend, but they weren't making any progress.

Dove shot at it with his Sword's bullets that hardly scratched its armor, but did a fair job at enraging the Boarbatusk. Lionel barely attacked the Grimm, but the few strikes he made, he ensured they'd count. Cardin could see that the front knees' exoskeletons were almost destroyed, leading him to jump in front of the great beast. It took the three by surprise when the two arrived and the biggest of the four took the advantage of that and used his Mace's Dust core to finish destroying it's frontal right knee. Crippled, the Boarbatusk moaned and thundered in despair and pain, leaving it immobile long enough for Russel to hop and stab its eyes.

Using one of his daggers' compartments, both eyes popped as the blades froze them, leaving the second pair lacking sight with the ice reaching them. Blinded, crippled and angered, the Grimm thrashed violently in the attempt of making a last stand. The four looked at each other and instinctively knew what to do. Cardin hopped onto its head and gave a second crushing blow that shattered its pale helmet. Lionel followed by jumping to the big man's place and skinning it to the inner skull with a swipe of his Halberd. Dove came in last and stabbed his sword into the Boarbatusk's head, now firing several shots that scattered in its brain before it finally went limp.

Getting back to the ground, Cardin took a look at the three and analyzed them again. Russel wasn't strong and would have been shaken off by the great Boarbatusk easily if he hadn't stabbed it first, but he was nimble and fast. Dove was an all-rounder, but pissing the enemy off would make it much more erratic and give more room for strikes in its blunders. Lionel, although he didn't look like it, had wiry strength and precision along with agility, plus the patience to wait for his enemies to give an opening for him to attack. And then there was himself, who had the brute strength to make an opening for the rest to exploit. Cardin smiled at them and they returned it, the four jogging towards the north. _Not such a bad team, at least I won't have them slowing me down._

 **Author's Notes: Well, hoped you enjoyed the first fight of this fic (not the last one by a long shot, fret not)! As you may guess, I will be placing several Grimm OCs (because who doesn't love a wide variety of strong beasts with exoskeletons to protect them), and maybe a few actual character OCs, though the better part of the story will be focused on the characters we know and love (or hate). Hope you enjoyed, and please review, for it is my source of strength.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: Hello everybody, sorry for taking a while, but I've been busy with a lot of senior year high school shit that I won't bore you with. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and do please review, it keeps me going.**

 **Pawns and Kings**

" _Lucy, what's that on your back?" He questioned, touching her back lightly with the tip of his fingers. He'd seen scabs like hers on other kids who had gotten cut with something very sharp. They had been pink, kind of like skinny, sleeping worms. But the girl's were pale, whiter than her skin, leading him to think they were old. What was really weird about hers was just how thick it was, how thick they were, and the almost pretty symbol they formed. The scab-drawing stretched from the end of her neck to her lower back. He could see it better since she had her shirt off, her bra barely covering parts of it. "It looks like one of those really, really old symbols, you know, the hiego… the hiephlo… uh…"_

" _Did you mean hieroglyphs, Cardin?" She chuckled, looking at him through the mirror as she continued to comb and stroke her hair. He smiled giddily at that, "Yeah, hiego-hier-hieroglyphs! Maybe it's some sort of power, Lucy! Hieroglyphs usually mean power, right?"_

 _She laughed softly again, getting up to sit next to him on his bed. Her hand caressing his hair, her fingers reaching his cheek, she began. "Well, Cardin, I don't know what it is, but I don't think it gives me power. I wish it did, though, but hey, who needs power when you have Aura, and more importantly, family? Besides, I think it's just a birthmark. You have it too, you know."_

 _He scrunched up his face, knowing the girl wouldn't lie to him yet not truly believing the words themselves. He must have made it really obvious, because the next thing he knew, the girl stepped aside from her place in their bathroom and made way for him. Turning him around and raising his shirt up, Cardin craned his neck to get a good look at his back through the terribly kept mirror. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I got it too! But how come mine looks more like a lot of gaps while yours look like they sort of healed?"_

" _I don't know, Cardin. It could be because I've unlocked my Aura. You still have two more years to go without it, and then who knows? Maybe yours will stitch up too." Cardin nodded dumbly, still hypnotized by his own mark, tracing his fingers on and around the markings on his short back. He shrugged, letting his shirt fall down again before he walked out the door, leaving it open as he grabbed her shirt and tossed it at her. She smiled his way, putting it on and finishing brushing her hair._

 _He stopped when she placed her hands on his shoulders, stroking them tenderly. "You have a lot to look forward to, Cardin. Two years from now, you get your Aura, and the year after that, we leave the orphanage. How's that sound?"_

" _It sounds really great! But those years are going to take forever to come." He groaned, letting the back of his head rest on her belly. She fondled his hair once more and said, "Well, you have a haircut to look forwards to next week. It's getting pretty long, and medium lengthed hair fits you perfect."_

 _He groaned in protest, but it died as quickly as it came when she started tickling him madly. He fell into a fit of laughter before the two lay on one of the beds, deciding to reward themselves with a nap for once._

By the time they heard the second wave of howling, they'd made it out of the woods. Finding a circular temple with pillars inside, he found that the relics they were looking for had to be those atop the short columns. Walking up the steps, he looked at the chess pieces that had been laid out before them, varying in types and colors. All of them were there, meaning they had to be the first to arrive. He found the golden ones to be too pretty and flashy for his taste, walking towards the half of the ruin that held the darker pieces. He looked at the horses, the _knights_ , if he remembered correctly, and almost grabbed one. He stopped midway as the three others observed him questioningly.

"Aren't you gonna grab the piece? That way, each pair has a black knight. It'd be more team-like to have the same types, right? Or did you put your big boy pants this morning and decided to go lone wolf style?" Cardin snorted at Dove's sly remark, walking instead towards where the gold and the black carved forms met. There, the black king lied shortly before Cardin took it, tossing it up in the air and catching it. "Maybe we could have been black knights and be what everyone expects us to be, _or_ we could bet big."

"That's the thing. There's only one king piece and two pairs of us. I, for one, don't think that we're taking the queen too, right?" Russel asked, Dove nodding in confirmation. Lionel, however, was not with either. Finding the blue haired man to be walking along the row of columns, he picked another chess piece before coming back to them. Surprising the three, he showed the pawn in his hand, meaning they had the most valuable and least worthwhile pieces at the same time. Before they could ask, Lionel spoke. "Pawns and kings, right? There may be a moment where we're the toughest of a bunch or the weakest of another, but each one of us has a specific value. We all serve a purpose, some of us may be better at commanding, others at following, others at working in teams, others at going our own ways. One way or another, we have roles to play."

"Pawns and kings." Cardin repeated, smiling now. The four were about to walk away from the place when the makeshift leader felt an extra pair of eyes on them that hadn't been there before. Turning towards the upper end of the slope through which they had left the forest, Cardin called loudly, "Now, if only there were some _Grimm_ around to shoot. Hell, I'll bet that there are a few just above the-"

"Relax, boys! We're not here to kill you or anything." Just like that, Goldie and the raven haired girl from the night before hopped just before them. The biggest of the growing group chuckled, tossing the king piece in the air and catching it several times. "Then you best get the pieces while you can still choose. We might have been the first, but I'm willing to bet there's a few more coming our way if you caught up with us so quickly."

"Noted." The way the quieter of the two walked past him so quickly and dismissively led Cardin to wonder what she was hiding once more. He might have attempted to pry further if he cared enough, but instead, he only looked at the more extroverted counterpart. Goldie smiled before she said, "Don't mind her. She's like that with practically everyone. Speaking of which, you don't look as moody as you were last night."

"Moody? Why, I'm the nicest, _greatest_ person you'll ever meet. But unfortunately, I'm also a slave to the truth and this world isn't _quite_ so forgiving." Sarcasm oozed from his mocking tone as Goldie furrowed her brows in a glare, not quite an angry one but more one that tried to analyze him. He gave her a big, shit-eating grin then, making her sigh and follow her partner. Once more, they were about to leave when he heard a screech like no other coming from not so afar. As well as a cry coming from the sky.

There was something about the whole situation that irritated him to no end, but he was at loss for words when he found that the childlike girl from the night before was falling from the sky, only to be hit by vomit-boy when she was about to fall. He heard growling nearby and found several trees cracking towards one of the ends of the forest. Cardin watched the Ursa on both its hind legs, flailing as an instinct inside him started flaring for him to kill it. He blinked when he saw the girl who woke him in the morning and her friend riding its back.

He probably zoned out for a few seconds before tuning back to the absurd reality that was going on around him. During which vomit-boy had caught a falling Schnee before the two fell before them, while a redhead with some actual light armor was tossed no better than a ragdoll would have been at their feet. Goldie had near screamed at the world for the same reasons Cardin felt like a volcano on the verge of erupting, only for a deep, massive _caw_ to screech from the skies while a Deathstalker cut a path through the woods towards them.

His rage had bubbled its way to the top of his rational mind, and then came his own booms of rage. "ALRIGHT, _ALRIGHT_! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS _HORSESHIT_! I DON'T KNOW WHO HERE WAS _STUPID_ ENOUGH TO GO INTO A CAVE AND BRING A DAMN _DEATHSTALKER_ HERE, BUT HE OR SHE IS GOING TO KILL IT, JUST LIKE THE PAIR OF IDIOTS THAT RODE THE NEVERMORE ARE GOING TO CUT ITS HEAD OFF BEFORE IT BECOMES SMART ENOUGH TO GANG UP ON US WITH THE FUCKING GRUB! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND IF I DIE BECAUSE ONE OF THE TWO BIT ME IN THE ASS, I'M GONNA CLAW OUT OF HELL JUST TO DRAG YOU DOWN _WITH ME!_ "

They had all certainly been intimidated enough by his hardly forgiving speech, almost as if they feared him now more than they did the two wandering beasts approaching them. For a second, Cardin felt he was on the verge of activating his Semblance, all but the _last_ thing he wanted to do, but stopped his brooding to look at who poked his shoulder. Russel looked at him with the fear a man would look at a bomb with a thousand different cables to cut and a short timer. He pointed towards the open fields, where repetitive thumping could be heard.

Cardin had decided that if there were Gods and they had developed a sense of humor, it was one as cruel as his. On the field, a Taurus roared and stomped its frontal right leg, leading its pack of eight. Like all Tauri, the greater part of its armor was concentrated in its helmet and horns, less on the front of its body, and none on its back save some bony plates here and there on its hind thighs. What marked it the head of the group was the typical Grimm spine protruding into a more dagger-like form. That was without mentioning how much bigger the horns had grown, and its armor spread.

Regardless of the new apparition, which likely came to answer his roars, he found himself calming at the sight. Cardin made contact with the group behind him to find the eight other students he'd met that day as well as the one before except for the addition of the redheaded warrior standing in a line. Apparently, his anger had scared them into discipline, likely more to avoid the mayhem he would cause if he stayed that way. He took advantage of that. "You got teams yet?"

His bark was short and sharp, cutting through the air in spite of the rapidly approaching foes. Most shook their heads while others tried to explain their current situations and what they had tried and failed to do or what they had succeeded at undertaking. Cardin didn't care and cut them off. "Form teams of four, with your best friends or lovers or enemies, _I don't care_. Four of you will take out the Nevermore, four of you will kill the Deathstalker. I don't care _who_ brought _which_ to the temple anymore, because if either of them interrupts us while we're taking on the Tauri stampede, I'm coming back and breaking _all_ of your fucking knees. _Now get their attention._ "

Before any could speak a word, he was marching off, quite slowly considering the gigantic scorpion in the vicinity. He heard the sounds of weaponries going off and slicing and dashing and shooting, none of which he cared for so long as he wouldn't be scratched or stung in the back by the monsters. Instead he gripped his Mace tightly when he found himself a few dozen meters away from the Tauri pack. He hit the ground with the Mace hard twice, the same way the alpha had marked its territory a few seconds back.

He heard the three companions step up behind him and ready in combat. The battle against the eight would be no easier than the ones the other teams faced, knowing the massive bulls were as large as Ursai naturally. They were smart like the bears as well, because the leader stomped once more and the group formed a wall, ready to charge. Dove scoffed and groaned, "Well that's just fantastic. Anyone got a plan?"

"Yeah." They all turned to Cardin, an enraged yet confident look on his face while he never broke eye contact with the head of the Grimm pack. He took deep, steady breaths in preparation before continuing, "We won't get anywhere if we split up and try to take two each, at least not as long as there are eight and they have some sort of order. They're gonna charge, and I'm gonna hit the alpha as hard as I can in the front knees. That'll break their formation and give you room to dodge. When it's down…"

"We can handle it. Russel hasn't figured out his Semblance yet, but Dove and I have them handled." Lionel's response was far more even than Cardin's own, so the latter took his stance seriously rather than he would have from most others in his state of wrath. And then it began. Their armored hooves sent louder booms than any war drum could ever hope to achieve, making a sound akin to a Titan's beating heart. Cardin took a deep breath, using his anger as his tool but not letting it overpower him. He ran, ran as fast as the Tauri and he screamed. The alpha whined and roared at its opponent in response, it being a great sound that ignited more like it from its pack. Then it turned into a cry of pain.

Cardin had done his job and hit the front right knee with all his strength, making the great beast crash so quickly its horns got stuck on the ground. Then, in one great swoop, the momentum lifted it in the air and the Taurus crashed terribly on its back. The wall was broken and his three teammates went through the opening. Dove had stabbed it through its jaw and into its skull, but Lionel swiped his Halberd onto its heart for good measure. Cardin smiled at his work. The formation was broken and the pack was enraged. Now they had something better to work with.

Through cries and a few signals here and there, the four dodged the majority of the Grimm cluster and took on one that was particularly stranded and enraged. When Russel stabbed it in the back of each of its hind knees, he switched his Daggers' compartments and shocked the Taurus with Lightning Dust. It cringed and bent all knees, making it easier for Cardin to give a crushing blow with his Mace's Explosive Dust.

Six on four, the pack grew rowdier as more fell, the formalized team gaining advantage with each kill they made. They were dealing with the second to last one, Lionel effectively beheading it once its neck's armor was destroyed with his Halberd's Rifle compartment powered by Fire Dust, when the last one came ramming his way before the silent specter could move. Cardin's roar had managed to reach his ears though, for he turned just when the monstrous bull was upon him. And then the Taurus rammed him. Only he didn't.

Upon looking more clearly, the tallest of the four watched Lionel _phase_ through the charging Grimm, not even holding a scratch from the encounter. An explosive blast and the Taurus lost half its head, bringing an end to the encounter. Turning, he found Dove's gloveless hand, the one that did not hold the sword, shining. In fact, he could very well see his hand's bones as his skin and muscles had become translucent with the bright glow. He had a satisfied smirk on his face when he surprised Cardin by creating a great, spherical charge from his hand, exploding within a few seconds of formation.

"Induced Radioactivity, that's my Semblance. In other words, I blow shit up naturally when I activate it." _That makes two of us_ , but Cardin didn't say that out loud. When the unscathed member walked back to the group and met Cardin's questioning gaze, he spoke after enough silence had come, "Intangibility and Reverse Intangibility. It means I can walk through objects by phasing myself or the objects around me. That's how the Taurus didn't spear my ass back to Beacon."

A cry from afar brought them to look at a northern cliff's wall just in time to see little red riding hood running up its length with the Nevermore in tow before finally beheading it. The Deathstalker, on the other hand, had lost the great sting of its tail, being nailed onto its head at the trumpet girl's hammer. It took a great fall when the ground under it crumbled, and all the Grimm in the area were eliminated. For a reason he could not know, Cardin felt more unease than he had before, choosing to wait for the other two teams to catch up to them before walking along with them.

"Uh, you were waiting for us?" The hooded girl asked when she saw that he walked alongside the eight that were on better terms than the largest was with all of them. He didn't answer, and when they looked at his partner for the same, Russel just shrugged in as much doubt as them. His heart had slowed down significantly, a faint thump that reached his ears. It got louder every few seconds, but time didn't slow down for him as it should have. He tried to connect the dots and then his eyes practically grew in size and his breath caught. In a single motion, he put his arm like a barricade in front of the girl and vomit-boy who had been leading the front.

"Why aren't there Grimm nearby?" His question came as unanswered as theirs leading them to either shake their heads or look around the zone nearby. They remained on the fields, barren of all life but them while nothing came from the woods, not even the Beowolves they had heard before. And then it came to Cardin. He wasn't hearing his heartbeat. From afar, a lone leg as thick as a tree trunk popped into existence, sending a resonating _thud_ when it landed on the ground. The leg had appeared from within the forest, and another joined it, letting a great Goliath's head stick from the woods. One eye gone, skull cracked and two sets of tusks, they knew immediately that it was out of their league, especially when they had exhausted themselves fighting the greater Grimm.

"Russel, what did that drunk say about Goliaths again?" He was quiet, but the titan had already seen them. Letting out an enraged screech with its trunk flailing in the air as an act of defiance. The man with the mohawk stepped back quickly. "FUCKING _RUN!_ "

And none disobeyed his commands. They ran, back into the forest, past any Beowolf they encountered, past any Ursa they encountered. They heard the trees behind them falling and crumbling under its massive strength and weight, knowing it would stop at nothing to take its targets. A brave few in the running group turned and ran backwards for a few short seconds to shoot at it only to continue when nothing fazed the mammoth-like monster. "When Ozpin said we should have our landing strategies, I think he implied flight strategies too!"

"Oh, thank God I have wings then! Well, I'll catch you guys later once a feel the _breeze_ brush my hair!" Dove's snarky reply to little red's comment was not without reason. Many were looking around and wondering how they would get out of the situation. Cardin growled, "Then we find the best way to climb! At least that big fucker doesn't have any way to follow us up!"

He stopped talking to not waste his breath and continue forwards with the energy he had left in him. His Semblance could give him more beyond his capacity, but it would also make him want to fight the Goliath. He did not want that. When they were facing the cliff they had been launched from, the hooded girl screamed, " _JUMP!_ "

And they did, climbing and punching through the rocky slope quick enough to evade the titan's ram. The entire place shook when it crashed, but they held on and took advantage of how it had gotten its tusks stuck in the great wall of stone. Nearer to the top, the group looked down again to find a very large amount of Grimm around the leader, roaring and howling up at their cowardly meals. When they stopped feeling stone in their fingers and started feeling grass, they near launched themselves upwards, laying on the floor and enjoying their close victory. The two professors were still there. Ozpin was not smiling, but there was no disapproval in his eyes while Glynda said, "Congratulations. You have passed your very first test at Beacon Academy."

 **Author's Notes: Well, there you go! The initiation is over somewhat differently from the actual story chapter, but if it weren't, then it wouldn't be very creative now, would it? So yeah, I decided to make Dove radioactive in Semblance (for reasons not yet shown) and Sky has phasing, but his Semblance is waaaay more complex than that. Cardin is well aware of his own Semblance, but again, you'll know why he doesn't use it when the time comes and Russel just hasn't figured out his own yet (at least he can fight without it).**

 **At first, I wanted to make the twelve kill the Goliath at the end of the chapter, but I figured that a good fighter knows how and when to pick his fights and what's just out of his reach. RWBY killed the Nevermore in a flash and momentary understanding how they worked to survive the same way JNPR did with the Deathstalker. That's fine, because the only pairs that even knew one another from before Beacon were Ruby and Yang (sisters) & Nora and Ren (friends). The rest are strangers to one another, not to mention that CRDL is a team of four more strangers that simply wouldn't all fight together with the synchronicity necessary to take down a big daddy Grimm like the Goliath. So, I made them run, but hey, they got their epic battles first.**

 **Also, I made CRDL's pieces the black King and the black Pawn as opposed to the black Bishop pair from the show. I did this mainly because Cardin and Jaune are references to Joan of Arc and the Cardinal who burned her. That would mean that Cardin's only importance in the actual story was to give Jaune the incentive to grow a damn pair for once. After that, they've almost completely been forgotten, and I think that's a huge dumb waste of character potential on Roosterteeth's part, but hey, it's their show. Anyways, the King and the Pawn will have their importance in meaning too, considering my plans to make the team have an actual storyline while RWBY and JNPR have theirs (which may or may not intertwine).**

 **I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and please REVIEW! I need them terribly to know how you guys are liking the story (or not). It's going to be some time before I can update this story again (I've been giving it priority over the rest), but I won't have it be forgotten. As for a 'next chapter preview', well, let's just say that you will learn why good old Professor Port is a main character in this story. Anyways, see you all around and again, do feel free to comment on what you've liked and/or what could be improved.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: Well, three other stories and my final term in high school have been depleting my time, but here I bring you the next chapter (and it's a long one, too)! Well, we're thirteen now, but it's a slow growth and there's plenty to come from this fic, so I'll be patient. Without further ado, here's the next chapter.**

 **Fighting Lessons**

 _He tasted blood. One of the two older boys wailing on him had a broken lip. He had done that when he made fun of Lucy. The other had a black eye. He was getting the worst of him. One had the small, boar-horns at the sides of his nose. The other had the long, long dog ears that dropped so low that they hid his real boy ears. He had denied them his lunch money, they started taunting him, and now the two were hurting him outside. But he didn't cry, ask them to stop or begged for help. He wouldn't give them that._

" _C'mon, is that all you got, you stupid little jackass? I bet I could grab your sister's ass and you wouldn't do anything!" He screamed and forgot boar-boy, hitting the dog-boy above the brow three times before he was punched in the back of his head by boar-boy. He fell to the ground on all fours, doing his best to not fall over. He saw two pairs of ugly, worn out sneakers before him. The two boys one year older than him stood tall, arms crossed with mean smiles their faces. Boar-boy spoke first, "Hey Lyle, I think the dumpster's pretty empty. What do you think?"_

" _I think I agree with you, Tom, maybe we need to fill it up." He was too tired to fight back when the two went to his sides, grabbing him and dragging him from under his arms. They were near the dumpster when a very large shadow covered the three. "And just what the hell do you two think you're doing here, and with that kid?"_

 _The two dropped him immediately and turned around, scared. Dog-boy stammered, "Oh, uh, w-we were just helping our f-friend here, uh, right Tom?"_

 _At dog-boy's elbow, boar-boy nodded quickly, "Y-y-yes sir, we were! We were!"_

 _He couldn't believe it, and he turned his head half way to look at the two. "Cowards."_

" _Helping him? Where, into the dumpster? Over some lunch money?" The big man growled, and the two sat and tried to back away in fear until their backs touched the dumpster. Cardin was too tired to look at the big man himself. "He-he-he gave me 'n' Lyle bruises! He-he-he broke his lip, and gave me a-a-a–"_

" _You mean after you insulted his sister?" The two boys stammered harder, not knowing what to say. Dog-boy was stood up first and slapped in the face with the back of his hand. He whimpered and ran away. Boar-boy tried to run, but the big man grabbed him by the back of the neck and slapped in the back of the head. He ran again, following dog-boy. Cardin felt the hand grab him by the back of the neck and stood up. The big hand then wiped his pants from below the knee off the dust._

 _Looking up now, he saw the very big, young man had a fancy black suit, a white shirt and a black tie. He had a small beard that only covered the chin, black as his hair. His eyes were chocolate brown, the kind that could look scary in a glare. But the big man wasn't glaring at him. "You alright, kid?"_

 _He nodded, wiping the blood at the side of his mouth and rubbed the sides of his head where he had been hit. "I'm used to it. We don't fight like this very often, but they hit when they can."_

" _They're cowards, that much I'm sure of, but they're weak. They look like they're a bit older than you. If they needed to be two to take you down and you still managed to hit back hard, then you're stronger than them if you fought them one on one." He nodded. He didn't get many compliments from people that weren't Lucy very often. "Thanks. I still get beat though."_

" _It's a hard time to fight, and you're in a rough place, but you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. Say, how old are you?" He realized he liked talking with the big man. He wasn't bad to him. "I turned eleven last month."_

" _Eleven? Damn, kid, I thought you were thirteen or twelve at least. You're gonna be hella tall, without a doubt." Cardin smiled feebly and thanked the man, but then looked back at his two feet, wondering if the Orphanage's gruel had finally been cleaned from the roaches. He heard the man giving a long sigh. "Say, kid, I don't do this often, but… how'd you like to train with me? Looks like you could use the extra hand, and under the place where I work, I've got a gym to myself and the few men I have worth training."_

 _His head immediately shot upwards to the man's gaze, almost not believing his ears. Lucy had taught him not to go with strangers, but he had learned that those strangers looked like liars and looked dirty and mischievous and dangerous. This man looked a bit scary for his size, but he looked like he was honest. Like he really knew what it was like to be beat on by everyone that could. "Really? Thanks! I'll start when you can teach me!"_

" _Good to know kid, but if we're doing this, I'm gonna need a name." The big man said, the lower half of his face twisting with his smile. He smiled back. "Oh, my name's Cardin Winchester. What's yours?"_

" _Same as my old man's. Hei Xiong."_

Cardin looked at his opponent before him, the smaller man panting, his blonde hair getting in his eyes. He screamed, raising his sword, but it met the pole of his Mace. It came to a battle of strength, and having faced so many challenges in his life, the boy in front of him was an easy win. He smiled cruelly, looking at him from above. "This is the part where you lose."

And he did. Before long, Goodwitch, cold as Cardin had successfully guessed she'd be, stepped in between them to show Jaune's Aura to be in the red zone. As she went on with her exposition explaining the blonde's loss, Cardin thought back to the results of the 'initial test'. Within the school again, he'd come with only a small bit of surprise as the leader of team CRDL, pronounced 'Cardinal'. He was placed on the permanent team with Russel, Dove and Lionel, which was fine by him.

Team RWBY, pronounced 'Ruby', was being led by 'Ruby Rose', the one that had managed to make herself look like a little kid during her entire first day. He could tell she hadn't changed, but when he learned that _she_ was the one who decapitated the Nevermore, he felt a bit more respect for her. Besides, the look on Schnee's face when she wasn't made leader was worth remembering. Team JNPR, pronounced 'Juniper', was… an enigma, and the kind that Cardin detested.

He saw Pyrrha Nikos, known worldwide for her extensive fighting skills, answering to the blonde pansy that hadn't so much as _scratched_ his aura. He even found more use in the trumpet-girl named Nora, who at least had the brute strength to make up for her being so chaotic. Instead, they were being led by Jaune Arc, who _had_ to have entered Beacon through some form of cheating. He was completely and utterly weak, and Cardin's stomach revolted at that. He tuned in on Goodwitch's last words when his thoughts returned to the finished match. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowulf, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself." He grunted, scowling at the fallen 'Hunter-in-Training', if he could be called as much. Then he turned and walked away, Mace against his shoulder. He was very strong, but he'd seen plenty of people that were capable in the Academy, plenty that could have given him a good fight. Instead, the weak came on top as always, and he got the irritation and pleasure of fighting him. Or pummeling him, rather. How someone so useless got into Beacon was beyond him, and it filled him with rage when he thought of so many people far more capable that didn't get a place because of _him_.

His team, all waiting for him, varied in reactions. Russel shook his head disappointingly at Jaune being lifted by his red haired teammate, though giving a thumbs up to Cardin. Dove was still laughing, probably the reaction of the part when Cardin had kneed Arc in the balls. Lionel looked at it all coldly, far more condemnation in his eyes than Russel's when he looked at the injured blonde. _We're of a mind, Lionel and I._

They headed to the cantina, grabbing the trays and filling their plates with food. Cardin found that, next to the fights and fighting lessons, all the eating times of the day had become his favorite moments. To eat so well with such frequency without cost was something he still had a hard time understanding, though he no longer questioned it. On the way to their table, however, he found a Faunus with foot-long ears atop her head sitting in _his_ place. His stomach dropped, memories resurging as rage bubbled up from the pit of his throat.

He made himself smile when he dropped down next to her. She jumped in a bit of a fright, uttering a 'sorry' before one strong hand around her arm forcefully sat her back down. He laughed with more than a hint of malice in his tone, "Where are you going, rabbit girl? By all means, don't get up on _my_ account."

"Look, I'm sorry I was sitting on your place. I just took a bit longer to finish eating and–" She stopped and yelped when he took a handful of one of her ears in his hand. Dove was smiling, taking joy from the scene unfolding before him. Lionel looked up from his meal, gave the act a cold look, and went back to eating with complete indifference. Russel was laughing lightly, though from his experience, Cardin could tell he looked nervous. He paid them no mind and went on with the girl before him. "Holy hell, how do you get around with those big fucking ears? Don't they get caught with points on a ceiling or something?"

"That's what you're gonna ask? What _I_ wanna know is if she's got the rabbit ears, does she have the rabbit breeding habits? I mean she _couldn't_ be the very first student in a Hunter Academy to get kicked out for getting knocked up." Dove's statement made Cardin roar in laughter, the girl's face reddening immeasurably before quietly whispering, " _Please let go._ "

And he did, letting her walk away with her head lowered in shame. He almost ran after her to mock her further. He remembered those who had entered Beacon Academy as first years with him, and she was not amongst them. In other words, she was at the very least a year older than him. He expected a fight, even a black eye, and _all_ she did was become submissively obedient. It enraged him. If she fought him, he'd have ensured it was a one on one fight, and whoever won, at least she'd shown she would stand her ground. Instead she was _weak_ and let herself be humiliated by a rookie first year team. He stuffed mountains of food in his mouth and destroyed everything within it to keep his anger within and try to enjoy the meal. Soon, they were finished and they were up.

"Uh, Cardin?" He looked over to his side and downwards to find Russel rubbing the back of his head nervously. The bigger of the two raised a brow, wondering if the smaller had done something to piss him off behind his back. "What is it, Russel?"

"I, well, _look_ , I'm not saying we _can't_ have fun, I mean Jaune's always asking for it, but do we really need to be like that to her or people that _maybe_ don't deserve it?" Cardin sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose lightly. He could tell Russel was distressed by that, probably nervous that now the leader was mad at him. "What I do, I do for a reason and a damn good one at that. If you think coming here will make me a saint, think again. Besides I'm doing it for myself, I'm not _forcing_ you to join in."

"Wait, but I just meant– _never mind._ " Russel looked dejectedly and guiltily at the ground. Whether it was guilt with Cardin himself or the girl from earlier, he couldn't say. If he was as good a judge of character as he thought, then it was probably a mixture of both. He felt a small amount of pity for the boy with the mohawk, but dismissed it soon after. What he did would be on his own head, he wouldn't drag the others down if they took no part in it, but he would not have them stop him. Dove seemed to have enjoyed it as much as he did or more, it brought Cardin to wonder if he had had his own fair share of bad experiences with the animalistic humanoids.

The fun was over for the day, he knew, as now they were to head to professor Oobleck's history class. Cardin grimaced especially at that. He wasn't smart, but at least when it came to mathematical related subjects, he only had to memorize the equations and find a way to make them work. History was an endless barrage of dates and names and a very long list of crap he cared about too little to remember. Needless to say, it was the class he was having the hardest time with.

And so they sat, hearing about the different tales and accounts of the Faunus Rights Revolution. While Dove sat back with his hands behind the back of his head, relaxed in every respect, Lionel set to writing everything that came out of the green haired professor's mouth. Russel was struggling more, but to be fair, so was everyone, as Oobleck's teleportation-level speed allowed the class little time to write it all. Cardin chose not to listen, figuring he'd look it over back at their room. Light snores brought him from his attention.

He looked at the seat in front of him to find his former 'sparring partner' to be sleeping. Cardin could not believe the blonde. The big man had expected the leader of JNPR at the very least to make up for his pathetic fighting skills by perhaps being the brains of the group. He didn't even look like he was sleeping on purpose, but rather that he fell behind, like he did in _every_ respect. Cardin decided to have a bit of fun with himself and folded a piece of paper into a very small football. Waiting for the professor to make a question for a student to answer, he flicked it at Jaune to stir him awake at the opportune moment.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! _What is the answer?_ " Cardin cursed internally that he didn't choose to wake him for another question, but time was running out and he needed the time to make it worth it. He had the answer at the back of his mind, trying to remember General Lagune's fall through lessons from years back. In the meantime, he chose to listen to whatever the blonde could possibly muster.

"Uhhhh… the answer… the advantage… of the Faunus… had over that guy's stuff…" The leader of CRDL couldn't believe the amount of trouble the boy 'answering' was having so much trouble thinking up something to say to Oobleck. He narrowed his eyes across the room to find Pyrrha making a gesture towards her eyes. It put the answer at the back of Cardin's throat frustratingly so. Until Jaune spoke up. "Um, b-binoculars!"

Maybe it was the fact that the answer was so unexpectedly stupid, or just so completely different from what his teammate had suggested. Whatever it was, Cardin roared in laughter for the second time that day at the blonde's blunder. The other students were laughing, which was a good thing. He didn't truly care if he laughed alone, but it'd be easier for the professor to pick him out and give him a scolding. "Very funny, Mr. Arc. Mr. Winchester! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

 _Shit, I just had it._ But he kept himself relaxed. He should as hell would not make the same mistake as Jaune and make an idiot out of himself. "To tell you the truth, I _just_ had it, but I _do_ know it's easier to train an animal than a soldier."

He could see from the corner of his eye Russel looking at him nervously, Dove grinning at what he said, and Lionel… he didn't pick up his gaze from his notes. He doubted he'd care anyways. RWBY was looking at him in disappointment, Blake glaring at him particularly. He'd keep tabs on that. JNPR was glaring at him save for Jaune, who would have a tougher time looking at him from behind. The professor shook his head and the blonde's partner began, "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?"

Cardin rolled his eyes at that. He could tell she was the type of person that was 'above insulting' and called people by their names so the hatred wouldn't show. That was complete bullshit, and Cardin hated bullshitters. "Why, I'm just being honest, _Pyrrha_. Besides, if you'd seen half the shit I've seen, you'd be _much_ worse than me."

"Watch the language, Mr. Winchester. And a few bad experiences do not generalize the conduct of an entire race. Even in most rough corners of the cities, only one in ten Faunus is truly notorious." He laughed and smiled again. Now everyone had their eyes on him. " _CUTTHROATS!_ "

"I beg your pardon?" Oobleck raised a brow, trying to understand the young man's triumphant looking behavior. Cardin relaxed and kept his grin. "Cutthroats! General Lagune lost his forces because the Faunus sneaked during the night and killed them in their sleep with their night vision! How's that for courage?!"

"General Lagune made the mistake of going up against the Faunus when they had better–" He cut off Blake before she could anger him more. "General Lagune made the mistake of thinking the Faunus had the _balls_ to come up to his own army and face them in actual combat, not sneak into their tents and slit their throats while they weren't looking. And professor, I'm no good at math, but do tell me how the numbers work if the Faunus _I've_ met are nine cunts out of every ten and only one irritating at the very least."

"Right, like you would know about what 'notorious' means. I'd bet the _only_ reason you say that is because you made fun of them and got angry at them for giving you a _black eye._ " Blake had interrupted Oobleck's retort to his question not unlike Cardin had done before. But Cardin said nothing. He heard nothing. Only a faint whistle resonated through his mind. The one that came with white fury.

He stomped when he got up, walking over to her while taking off his jacket and unbuttoning the top of his shirt. The classroom tensed up, and a part of him knew that her team was getting ready to fight him if need be. His own team was up, Lionel being the only one to walk over to him in the attempt to bring him back. He didn't, and Oobleck's commands for him to calm down and return to his spot fell deaf to his ears. Only when he was in front of the black haired girl did he slam his hands down on her desk.

" _Look at me._ " Everyone fell silent at that. With the top of his shirt opened, he widened the view of his chest so that a particular pink line could be seen. The one that stretched from one end of the base of his neck to the corner of his pectoral in a diagonal line, more horizontal than vertical. He placed one careful finger over it. She looked at it reluctantly, as did Pyrrha who was beside her. _Good, maybe she can learn to shut the fuck up and leave me alone._

"See this? It's a scar, a faint scar, a _perfect_ scar. It's not that deep, but it didn't need to be if it was opened right. It's precise, see? Like a knife. Aiming for my neck. I survived because I jumped at the right moment. You know when I got this? When I was _thirteen_. In other words, by the time _you_ figured out what masturbation meant, I was almost getting my throat _slit_. You know why I got this? Because I got lost on my way back _home_ and went into the wrong alleyway at the wrong time, and that bastard didn't want to leave witnesses."

"Mr. Winchester, that's enough! Get back to your seat! I can't say that your anger towards the Faunus has no foundation nor reasoning, but that does not make it excusable! And now is _certainly_ not the time to discuss that!" He stood up, relaxed and buttoned his shirt before putting back on his jacket. He had made his point. But apparently, she was not through. "And how do you know the criminal was a Faunus?"

"The man had a skull mask, a black suit, a black tie and black gloves to hide who he was, but he couldn't hide his big, black fucking rabbit ears. By the time I cried for help, he'd hopped on top of an entire goddamn building." When he had turned back to face her, Cardin could see the disbelief in her eyes. He knew it was more at the situation than his credibility, but his current short-fused temper caused him to growl, " _Go ahead, call me a liar again. Say it._ "

But the bell rang instead, and most students ran away from the tension on the verge of explosion coming from the situation. Oobleck's voice rang, "Mr. Winchester, Mr. Arc, stay in your seats! Mr. Bronzewing, wait outside! You'll enter the room when I am done with the two!"

"Wait, wait, _wait_ , what did I do?" Dove had an incredulous look about him that would have made Cardin laugh if the situation were different. The bigger of the two turned to the professor, "Professor, what I did in the classroom, I did alone, Dove had no–"

"Mr. Bronzewing's stay has nothing to do with your outburst, and as disruptive as it may have been, it has nothing to do with your or Mr. Arc's stay here!" Dove grunted and waited outside. Now the place was empty save for the three, Jaune nervously wondering the reason for gaining Oobleck's attention. "You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now I don't know if it's a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is, it stops now! You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you to act like it! History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it… you're destined to repeat it."

After that, the professor gave the two an additional assignment, much to Cardin's chagrin knowing the amount of evaluations they had next week. A part of him knew the blonde had nothing to do with his misfortune, but thinking of how the idiot had managed to take a place as one of 'the best of the best', he grew angry knowing he had likely never truly worked for anything in his life. Placing his palm on his back, a very strong push later and Jaune was on the ground. The team's redhead immediately helped him up, and while he walked away, he gave her a challenging glare to see if she would bite. She didn't.

Cardin groaned and gestured to Dove, who had laughed at Arc's misfortunes and turned to walk back into the classroom. It was still the afternoon, somewhat late, but still a few hours before it grew dark and the time curfew started. He figured he'd head to the gymnasium. He didn't like Port's classes because he thought the professor was to self-absorbed and moronic in his own 'tales of courage', but at least he got to volunteer in fighting Grimm there. Albeit short, much less deadly and generally weaker Grimm, but Grimm nonetheless. He hadn't had classes with him that day, and Goodwitch's combat lesson had been more annoying than entertaining.

He had left the school and its dorms for a building outside it, but still pertaining to its grounds. Walking long enough on a cemented path with long, flowing grass at his sides, and he found himself in front of it. He entered it eagerly, the place being shaped around a fairly sized sparring ring that stood a meter above the rest of the floor. Outside the square shaped fighting center, there were all kinds of machines and weight sets made for testing physical limits and eventually surpassing them. Cardin smiled when he saw he was alone. There was the one place where he truly excelled, the place where he could crown himself as a king.

And so, he set to it, changing into a simple black boxing short and black boxing shoes. He had no shirt on, but he had a towel over his shoulder to dry the sweat when it started raining. And so, he got to it. After an hour and a half, two hundred sit-ups, two hundred push-ups, two hundred pull-ups and several series of exercises for his legs, he heard the doors opening again. He couldn't see who it was, sitting on a bench facing the opposite side of the entrance, but he didn't care. That was until the newcomer presented himself in front of him.

He looked up to find Professor Port standing tall and proud, as he usually did. The two locked eyes and neither broke the silence. Cardin figured out that Port would not be the first to speak, so Cardin took his time to analyze the reason for his presence. If it had been to give him a scolding, he would have had him called back into the school. The two had no bond, if anything, Cardin was annoyed by his elder. A conclusion popped into his mind that made everything fit. He smiled. "So, Ozpin sent you here?"

"Would you prefer a pretty lie or the truth?" Port didn't look half surprised at Cardin's intuition. "The truth. Always the truth. Lies work for a while, then they give you a nasty surprise."

"Then yes, Ozpin did send me." Cardin contemplated the situation for a minute and then he chuckled. "So, I'm guessing I'm gonna have to answer all his questions through you, 'lest I seek his wrath', right? Problem is, you're gonna take a hell of a while to get the answers from me. Let's get started, shall we?"

"Truthfully, all Ozpin wanted me to do was give you constant checkups, make sure your mental health is alright. By all means, I'm done here today." The student raised a brow at the simplicity of the professor, having expected for the man to go on and on about what it means to be a Hunter. Instead, Port took off his jacket, his buttoned shirt, his pants and his shoes. Beneath the pants, he already had training shorts on, and Cardin could see large sneakers within his backpack. Taking off his large, formal socks and placing his feet inside of the greyed shoes, Port replied the unasked question. "Just because I finished my little checkup doesn't mean I can't train here. You up for it?"

"What?" He furrowed his brows, trying to decipher the meaning behind the professor's actions. Port smiled through his moustache, taking out boxing gloves, putting them on his hands and hitting his own chest roughly. "What is it? Afraid of an old man? You should be. We used to be the top notch troops in our time, and we've still got a hell of a lot to give. A shame, really. I would have thought you were stronger from the way you killed those Tauri…"

Cardin laughed. He hadn't expected that from the professor, and he certainly wouldn't back down from a challenge. "I'm afraid I'll leave an old man winded and I'll get detention for the rest of the year. I'm looking for someone that won't complain by the time we're through with the match."

"Heh, I've been whipping punks' asses for years now. Some overgrown kid isn't going to break my streak!" When Port proclaimed that proudly, he tossed Cardin a pair of gloves for himself and stepped into the boxing ring. Cardin kept his mischievous grin, "Don't be surprised when you fall then, old man."

…

Cardin was reading the damned pages on the desk near the window to his team's room. He was growling as he read it, having to spend twenty minutes per every page to get the data through his mind and keep half of it. Their room was fairly simple. None bothered to decorate the room with their 'personalities'. Truth was, they had nothing to show for them and they didn't want to. Four beds rearranged into bunk beds from hard carpenter's work from the team. He got the bottom one on the right, Russel above him. Lionel was on the top left one and Dove below. Thinking of the final member, he craned his neck at the acquaintance and asked, "So, what did Oobleck put you through?"

"Hm? Oh nothing, really. Just offered me to stay after class every now and then." Cardin furrowed his brows. "What for?"

Dove looked up from his bed, closing the book in his hands. He couldn't read the title from the distance, but he could tell it was about history. "Ah well, talk about the history of our wars. Guy's a fucking machine when it comes down to it. He knows everything about them, from dates to people to events. Hell, considering we develop the best technologies and make the biggest steps in those terms when we're at war, there's plenty to know about them."

Cardin wouldn't have guessed Dove was a bookworm when it came to those subjects. In part, it didn't surprise him. Everyone had their quirks and tastes. He admitted that he himself was easier to decipher at first glance that he enjoyed fighting and training. He'd grown to respect Port far more when he returned to his room with fresh new bruises to nurse. It meant he had to train again to become stronger, and that meant Port was actually a hell of a match. "Fair enough."

And back to the damned essay. His mind drifted again, absentmindedly looking at Lionel opening a classical watch and toying dexterously with the pieces. Russel had a paper in his left hand and a pencil in the other. Cardin would have said it was homework, but from the way he was handling it, it hardly looked formal. His thoughts were interrupted by the conversation at the rooftop, barely just above their room. It was Jaune and Pyrrha, making for an exasperated conversation with revelations that shocked Cardin in spite of his preemptive guesses.

When they were done, he stood up from his guess, much to the other three's confusion, and grabbed onto the edge of the roof. All he could think of were all the times he would have killed or given an arm to have a fraction of the things he had now, all the things he had had to slave for before Ozpin swooped him in. When he surprised Jaune from the rooftop, the blonde shrinking in fear, he grinned cruelly. Far more cruelly than he did at the match.

 **Author's Notes: And into the mind of the bully we go. This is the first chapter in which Cardin has had any sort of relevance throughout the series, and I do put here more into perspective who he is and why he acts the way he does. And now we see why Port is a major character, as the description suggests! How do you think that relationship will flow? Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and I'll update as soon as I can! Do leave a review for me, if you'd be so kind. They keep me motivated. They keep me alive. They keep me young and healthy.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: Guys, it's been like seven years, but between grad party, moving to my soon-to-be university's city and a whole other list of things, I've barely just been updating my other stories, and now it's this one's turn. It took a while to write, but it's the longest one yet, and there'll be another one out by next weekend. I'm talking a whole week since orientation starts tomorrow, but hey, it's something. Without further ado, enjoy.**

 **Training Initiation**

" _Alright, kid, aim up. And for God's sake, punch it like you mean it!" At his shout, Cardin gave a roar with his still little voice. He'd turned twelve a week past, and Hei had given him some boxing gloves for a present. He now considered him a real friend, and the big man had taken a real liking to him. Only rough spot that they'd had was when Lucy found out he'd been sneaking out weekdays after school to The Club, Hei's place. It had been one of the few times he had seen truly infuriated, but she managed to hide it so that her angry lecturing wouldn't be for all to see. Fortunately for him, the giant had stepped in, invited the two for a drink, Cardin a soda, and explained everything._

 _She still lectured him, but she was relieved to hear he hadn't been drinking, but rather training and fighting. Lucy had been somewhat against him boxing because she had thought he was too young, but with the Orphanage as rough as it was, she didn't deny him the opportunity. Besides, she had sized Hei up herself and approved of him, even if he was a bit morally ambiguous when it came to certain matters. And for almost a whole year, Cardin had trained with Hei Xiong. He got to eat lunch and dinner with him, sometimes Lucy as well when she was free the evening, and many of the neighborhood punks didn't want to mess with the raven haired tower._

 _Cardin had gotten better at fighting. One of the most important lessons Hei had taught him had been that strength, as much as it was worth, was not everything. The trick to fighting was knowing when and where to punch. After Cardin had spent a full month with Hei, he faced Lyle and Tom again. They beat him, and both Lucy and Hei pulled his ears when they heard. He had started the fight, he wasn't defending himself, they said. They deserved it, sure, but he didn't need to get bruises that he could save himself from. The next times he fought he managed to hold them off. Not win, but hold them off._

 _It was in his sixth month of training that he had earned his first victory. With the knowledge Hei had taught him and an immense amount of luck, he had knocked out Lyle in one punch, a hook to the side of the chin. Tom was hefty work after that, but a great part of their strength came from attacking together. With the Boar Faunus alone, Cardin had been able to corner him and knock him down until he started running. Lyle woke up after maybe three minutes on the ground, found himself alone and ran after his friend. That was one of the happiest memories Cardin had ever had._

 _Lucy was somewhat glad that it was over, Cardin sported fresh bruises that she was not happy about, but he was no longer being harassed by the two elder boys. Hei had given him a much bigger congratulation, even letting him sip a tiny bit of rum. He spat it out as soon as the first drop made it down his throat. That had made the giant laugh. The results of the fight had motivated Cardin to train further and for Hei to teach him more. It resulted in a surprisingly close bond. And now, a week after he had turned twelve, he was in front of a sandbag, punching the sack with all his might._

 _He had to stop to take a few breaths, tired and sweaty, but Hei slapped him in the back approvingly so. With a tilt of the head, Hei motioned for the two to walk outside the Club so that the bigger of the two could have a smoke. He was the owner of the place, so it would give it and him a bad reputation if he broke the very rules he had established for it. On the way out, Cardin waved at some of the people he had started to know, those who hadn't been fired for mediocrity by their boss. The giant took a cigarette out, a toothpick in his mouth, and let out a few puffs._

" _You know, Cardin, I've been thinkin'…" The prepubescent boy looked at him, question in his eyes as he awaited the other to finish his statement. "This isn't a nice part of town, but it's the right place to make a business like mine."_

" _Yeah, I don't think there's a lot of good people that go to your parties." At the ginger's response, Hei chuckled. "It's not that they're good or bad, Cardin. They're just rough, simple as that. You're a good kid, but you've been learning how to give a mean punch, for instance. Point I'm trying to make is, there's plenty of rough crowds that want to go to a place like mine at night all the way 'till dawn. That means that they spend a lot of time drinking, meaning some end up drunk, and some of those drunks like to pick fights."_

" _I kinda thought people here liked to pick fights without drinking, too." Cardin pondered. Hei nodded, but shook his head later. "Yeah kid, but not in my club, or any of those kind of places for that matter. If anything, they're looking to drink enough to forget the shitty parts of their days or weeks. Problem is, doing that can make them aggressive. They're easy to handle, but they can spook people away. People who are looking for a break, which happen to be plenty around here, won't go to a club where they think they'll get caught in the middle of a bar fight."_

" _Yeah, so?" Cardin could tell Hei wanted something from him, but from the way the giant made it sound, it wouldn't be too much. Besides, if he could help the big man in any way, it'd be great. The raven haired boxer had done plenty for him and Lucy. "Well, under the right circumstances, even drunks know better than trying to piss on others' shoes. I can be scary because I'm damn near a head and a half taller than almost everyone else, but I can't be there all the time. I need to know that if someone mentions my name, then the pests will get the hell outta dodge before they make me come 'round."_

" _Alright, so what do you want me to do?" Hei looked at him and took a long drag before sighing. "I want you to help me find a look and a nickname that can sink into people's memories."_

" _Really? Why me? Why not one of your workers?" Cardin was actually kind of excited at the idea, like naming a superhero. Or a powerful individual. Whatever Hei would be classified as. Still, he was confused that he was chosen for the task. The giant chuckled. "The thing is, Cardin, you're too damn blunt 'n' honest for your own good. My men will just kiss my ass and tell me everything's great. You're a still a kid, and in this case, it's a good thing. If you can help me look and sound notable enough for you to remember, then any grown man will, too. So, any ideas?"_

 _Cardin thought and thought, but couldn't recall any recent instances where Hei had been particularly scary. Maybe because he had gotten so used to thinking about him in other, friendlier ways. Then he thought back to the day he met him. At the moment, the owner of the Club was in a brown, leather jacket and a simple white t-shirt beneath it, with black jeans and black boots. He had his sunglasses folded on his shirt, and his chin's little beard was freshly trimmed. The day they had met, he learned, Cardin learned, Hei was actually on his way to one of his friend's grandparent's funerals, hence his formal clothes. It gave the boy an idea._

" _You remember the day you found me? When Lyle 'n' Tom nearly left me in the trash?" Hei nodded. "Yeah, why?"_

" _You were really scary that day." The giant raised a thick, black brow. "More than I do now?"_

" _Yeah, I think so."_

" _Why's that?" Cardin went over the idea in his head and nodded in approval. "You were dressed really fancy and all in black. You don't look bad now, but some of the neighborhood punks dress like that too. You could add chains to the pants and use spiky wristbands, I guess, but I think the suit makes you look scarier. If you were going to threaten me dressed like you are now, I think I'd be afraid that you'd beat me senseless, shank me and steal my money. If you were going to threaten me in your fancy suit, I would think that you would find the way to hurt me in the worst way possible."_

" _Huh, that's a pretty good idea, Cardin. I'll give it a thought." As the giant stayed pensive on the boy's remarks, he used two fingers to slowly stroke his little chin-beard. It gave Cardin another idea. "Oh, and I think you'd look even more serious if you left a full beard grow instead of just the chin. You look a bit more youngish if you keep it all in the chin. If you left a small, well cut beard all around, I think it would make you look like the real deal."_

" _You know, I've only had goatees for about three years now since my cheeks wouldn't grow any hair back in the day. I'll give it a try. Now, any ideas for a nickname? I don't want to scare off people right away with it, but I also want it to be useful in a warning. Something that sticks easily." The fighter-in-training was pensive again, and in the midst of his brainstorm, he found an answer. "Hei, you said you have the same name as your dad?"_

" _Yeah, I did." He answered, a bit confused by the relevance of the question. Cardin smiled. "Then how about 'Junior'?"_

Cardin woke up rather groggily, not really wanting to know what the day had in store for him. It was a Saturday, a day he was going to have to use to get up to date with the classwork he was meant to do, in no small part thanks to Oobleck's intervention. There was plenty of catching up to do, but still, he got out his E-Scroll and looked at the news before he continued on. Amongst there more grand of ' _Vale Today_ 's news titles, he found a rather gruesome one he and many of those within the kingdom had grown accustomed to seeing.

 _[_ _ **THE WAYWARD WARRIORS STRIKE AGAIN**_ _– Once more, brutalized corpses have been found towards the south of Vale city with the signature injuries many others have suffered. The band of ruthless, borderline-terrorist mercenaries self-deemed 'The Wayward Warriors' have taken a hold of twenty more victims that had unfortunately traveled too far down the kingdom and nearer to the Grimm occupied areas. Male victims were reported to have been mutilated in numerous ways, from limb dismemberment to full-body incineration to the female victims, whose wounds are those akin to those found amongst rape victims, violently abused before being executed with a shot through their heads. Once more, it is very much advised by all Vale authorities to not travel too far down south until the mercenaries can be dealt with. Furthermore, all those living towards the southern end of the-]_

Cardin shook his head and swiped his finger, reading the next, hardly gruesome article by comparison on Vale politics to not read further into the previous topic. He had read enough on the soulless cunts to not need further information on how their misdeeds characterized their brutal mindsets. _Hell, I'm surprised Hunters haven't been sent to cut the bastards from balls to brains._ He shook his head once more and kept on reading the articles until he got up from his bed to return to the original purpose as to why he had woken himself up that day so early by his own standards. Silently, he wondered when he would have the time to visit the Orphanage again, for all but his own stake.

It was then that the team's alarm blared, marking the eight hundred hours the four needed to wake to during the weekdays. _Not_ for the weekends. Meaning someone forgot to turn it off. Cardin wasn't as pissed as he could have been with his body's own wake-up call, but across him, Dove was groaning. "Goddammit Russel, it was your turn to shut the fucking thing off."

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I haven't even thought about it with all of Oobleck's assignments this weekend!" Lionel sat up silently, not even a frown marring his features. But Cardin saw that killing look in his eyes that came with his silent fury. The leader of the group let out a rumble, making the bones of his back sing with a good morning stretch. Soon after, he was up and went over to the team's desk to shut the clock down. He heard one more pair of grunts in approval as the two quarreling teammates plopped back down on their beds, eager to catch a few hours more of sleep.

"Come on, get up, all of you! We woke up this early, we're making use of today!" His firm shouts were received with protests from the same pair, though the azure haired man had already hopped down from his bunk and stepped into the bathroom, armor in hands. It took five more minutes and a few angrier yells, but the two made it down to the floor. Russel was holding his hands up, half looking at him as if he were a threat, smartly deciding not to anger the giant. Dove, on the other hand, was far more liberal in showing Cardin how he felt in the form of a firmly erect middle finger. Which, of course, was promptly responded to with a good slap to the back of the head.

"Ah, _fuck you_ , Cardin. You're supposed to be the team _leader_ , not the damn prison warden. That's a real crappy thing to do, torturing your faithful comrades. It's the kind of stuff you don't do, _or else_." He grouched, rubbing the mildly sore spot on his head. The tallest of the three barked his loud laughter. "Or what? I'll be cursed for a traitor? I'll end up in hell next to Satan? I'll have the ghost of Nox Rufus waiting for me at night, trying to take my oh so sweet innocence from me and butcher me clean?"

"I was gonna go with plain old mutiny. Jesus Christ, man, couldn't think of a joke that's just a _bit_ more dickish?" Dove had visibly sobered up with his rather brash comment, prompting Cardin and Russel to look at him. "It's a _joke_ , Dove, don't get your panties in a twist."

"I don't know man, he kinda _was_ the most recent notorious child rapist and murderer whom the police couldn't catch and the prisons couldn't keep. I mean, he's dead now, but still." Russel was rubbing the back of his head when he said that, which made Cardin scoff again. "Yeah, then he was found dead _three years ago_ with the top of his head sliced off and his brain mushed up on the ground at some butcher's freezer. He got what was coming to him. Besides, the dead can't hear us anymore, and if they could, I'm pretty sure they'd be too busy fucking _him_ over to listen to us, wherever he is."

It was at that moment that Lionel left the bathroom, hair still wet but perfectly combed and dressed in his combat armor. "Bathroom's free."

"That was fast." The teammate with the mohawk murmured. The silent man shrugged apathetically, grabbing his weapon from the closet and taking the time to take it apart, gear by gear. Cardin nodded, getting in the washroom next, taking a second to admire the fact that it was pristine and white, that the toilet wasn't clogged, that the shower didn't have some fungus growing from the drain and that the mirror wasn't so much as scratched, much less cracked. At moments like these, he could only think back to the Orphanage. _Hell, I gotta go back there one of these days._

Under the rain of the showerhead, he gave himself the luxury of letting his mind go blank. For many, it was the time when the philosophers within them sprouted and made them ask themselves questions about life itself. In that sense, Cardin wasn't like the many as well. Where he came from, showers had to be very quick, firstly because of their ironic lack of hygiene, and secondly because taking too long would increase the Orphanage's bills and beatings would be distributed the next day. So, washing himself clean, he thought of nothing. He was still quick about it, he would not allow himself to waste water unnecessarily, but he did so with a calm he almost never had.

By the time he got out, Russel went in and Dove was on his bed, reading the same book he had seen a days past. Apparently, they had agreed over who should go first. Only clad in boxers, he armored up, waiting for the lime haired companion to finish and dress and for Dove to do the same. By the time they'd left, an hour had passed, but got the pleasure of being the first team in the mess hall. They ate their fill and left. On the way to the gym, however, Cardin spotted a certain blonde sleepily walking towards the men's bathroom alone. He grinned, gesturing for the others to wait for him at the fighting place.

"Why, good morning, _Jauney–boy!_ How are you spending this beautiful day?" He jumped at his voice and jumped again when he slapped his palm rather hardly on his back. He had to blink a couple of times to wipe the sleep from his eyes. He had to think a few more seconds to process his question. His nerves grated in the meantime. "I-uh, I guess I'm-uh, fine."

"Good, that's great to hear! Say Jauney, do you remember that little assignment Oobleck gave us a few days ago?" He could tell the blonde did not like his new nickname. Internally, he made it his personal task to call him that way from that point onwards. He could only hope that the blonde was somewhat smart enough to note the derision behind his falsely cheery tone. His stomach bubbled heatedly when he saw the smaller man give him a blank look. "You want me to do it for you?"

"Of course not. I'm not gonna trust someone who's failing his classes into doing my work for me. What I _am_ going to ask of you is that you find the _actual_ useful information in those five chapters beneath _all_ the bullshit they're filled with. You're going to find the key pages and key paragraphs, and you're going to send them to me tonight. Sound good?" He wasn't actually asking him, but he was enjoying making him feel like shit that morning. Seeing the small amount of relief in the blonde's face, after he had been stung by his previous comment, made him want to take that back and let Arc do the work for him.

"Alright, I'll make time to do it today." Cardin gave his big, wide, shit-eating grin to the blonde and slapped him in the back again, making the leader of JNPR yelp in pain. "That's great! You have no idea _how_ much of a help you're being. Oh, and Jauney? If you send me the wrong information, by accident _or_ on purpose, I'm breaking your arm and telling everyone our little secret."

The blonde looked very unsettled by that, making him smile more. He left the bathroom, finding his redheaded lapdog waiting for him outside. She gave him a mild glare, which he answered to with a grin. She couldn't catch him, and if she was about to, her idiotic leader would stop her. As he walked out of the immediate school grounds and into the fields he found himself thinking about why he had not made Jaune do the work for him and save himself time and effort. The answer, or answers, were very simple.

What he had said about Jaune being shitty at Oobleck's classes was his first and most important point. Cardin wasn't a smart man, but he was smart enough to know that he wasn't smart, and neither was Arc. He wouldn't ride towards the farthest city on the dying mule. The second reason was because any person that did the assignment for someone else did the second far too similar to the first, and both would get caught and be incriminated for copying the other. On the off chance that he _didn't_ make them alike, the blonde would obviously take the best one for himself. The third and final factor that came into play was the sole fact that Cardin would bring his grades and general average up _himself._ If Jaune miraculously managed to improve his grade, then Cardin would be improving because a useless mutt had done the work for him. He wouldn't have that. Success or failure, everything he did, he did _himself._

Having Jaune blackmailed made his work a lot easier, though. He needed to make a two-thousand-word essay on the Great War and its effects on current day Humanity. The topic was ironically easy, many ideas popping in his mind when he thought of the results of the conflict that was responsible for the naming traditions for people nowadays. He had done essays built on logic and modern referencing before, but the reason he had not had good grades on those were his lack of _book references._ If it wasn't there and it had no other fundament on a trustworthy or official site, then it was essentially bullshit. Cardin hated that he couldn't argue with that kind of logic. It made him feel that much more relieved that the grunt work of the task would be done by JNPR's leader and not himself.

Without having to dedicate as much of his day on that monotonous chore, he could focus on building his team up better. Speaking of which, he was nearly at the gym. They questioned why he had come late, well, all but Lionel, but he shrugged them off. He instead pointed towards the square boxing ring and climbed up, the three following him. At the top, he took a good look at them, furrowing his brows as he sized them up to the best of his ability.

First came his official partner. Russel was hopping from foot to foot, by far the lightest on his feet. For armor, he only had _one_ spiked shoulder pauldron, a small one at that, and two leather vambraces. That was it. Cardin knew that depending on the person, less and lighter armor was the better alternative, but Russel's poor excuse for protection might as well have been to decorate his form. Under almost every circumstance, his 'armor' was virtually useless. "Russel, you and me first."

"Huh?!" He looked startled at that, his hands hovering over his twin Daggers nervously. Dove chuckled at the dual wielder's face. Lionel looked at the scene bored. Cardin didn't smile or frown, simply continuing, "We're sparring, and I want the three of you to go all out on me. Considering you haven't discovered your Semblance yet, us three won't be using ours in the fight. I'll find each of your strong suits and weaknesses throughout. Now go."

With that he unsheathed his great Mace and swung a downwards swing at the smaller man. Russel barely just rolled out of the way, the other two hopping out of the ring to watch the fight from a safe distance. With almost surprising speed, Russel slashed at Cardin, the ginger barely just blocking them in time. He was too big to dodge the strikes fully. The more he moved, the harder it became for Cardin to get on the offensive, but still he waited. At the right moment, he feigned a swing and hit Russel square in the jaw with his right elbow. From there, it took two more good swings straight to the back and the chest to knock him out, the latter's Aura levels faltering terribly.

The mohawk-haired man groaned, still having enough Aura in the redzone to help nurture his soon to be bruises. Cardin walked next to his fallen opponent and offered a hand, which was promptly taken. "You're fast Russel, real damn fast, but you're not the fastest out there and your resistance is worth shit. A few good hits in the right places and you're out of the fight. All your training you've focused on speed and agility, but forgot about everything else. It doesn't help that you don't have guns or some kind of projectile weaponry, you're letting your ambidexterity go to waste. Dove, you're up."

" _Aw, dammit._ " Cardin ignored the next opponent's grunts and Russel's limping. Dove started by shooting Cardin before he could start the match. He was also shooting rapidly and almost randomly, making his Sword's small bullets harder to block. Cardin was spinning his Mace in a pendulum-like way in front of himself to keep the shots off of him, but a few were sipping through. None of it was painful and the bullets that made it through barely scratched his Aura, but the entirety of the act was irritating. It's exactly what Dove wanted.

Walking closer towards his opponent, still swinging his Mace, he made for several quick swings, which were promptly redirected mildly so it would barely graze the smaller brunette. He did it almost easily, expecting as much from the giant. He tried the same thing he did with Russel, but Dove had seen through and dodged both strikes. Cardin made for a strong downwards swing which the other hopped away from quickly, making his way to the other side of the ring before shooting again. While on the surface it looked dumb, it was actually a smart way of playing the fight. Dove hadn't taken damage and he was draining Cardin's aura slowly but surely.

Then Cardin decided he would play the part of the enraged opponent. Running full speed towards Dove, he stopped just before the smaller man rolled away. With a rather unconventional use for his Mace, he threw it like a spear towards the Hunter in training barely getting back up. Dove dodged again, but miraculously so as the great metal beast scraped his armor. Caught off guard, Cardin gave Dove a perfect hook to the cheek, knocking off his balance. Keeping the lack of predictability, he grabbed the other's blade mid-swing by the blade, slowly bleeding his Aura. In a surprising show of brute strength, he tore it from Dove's hands and tossed it aside. From there, he almost easily knocked the blue eyed opponent out.

" _You're fucking crazy._ " The fallen man groaned almost inaudibly. Cardin chuckled softly at the remark and offered his hand again. Dove got up and quickly shook his head, opening and closing his eyes in a rapid succession to regain full control of his body. "You've got a smart system, Dove, but you cling to it as your only fighting style. You're average in every respect, and you know how to wear down and piss off most opponents until you outclass them in terms of Aura and levelheadedness. If someone tries anything that isn't conventional by any means, you're fucked. You've got pretty good fighting skills, but sometimes you take too long to react, and without your Sword, you lose a great deal of that fighting strength. Also, it would definitely be better if your pistol's bullets _actually_ made a difference. I get what you're going for with more shots, but sometimes fewer and better placed strong shots are worth more."

He didn't need to say a word for Lionel Sky to step into the ring while it was now Dove that limped out. Cardin held his Mace rather loosely, eyeing his opponent to analyze him. But the silent specter gave nothing away, grabbing his Halberd just as loosely. Cardin grunted at his own obvious disadvantage. He could tell Lionel had studied his fighting style meticulously, as he did with everything he set himself to, and Cardin only had two thirds of his Aura. He would need to play it carefully.

He started walking in sidesteps to the right, circling around the ring. The blue haired comrade did the same, leaving the two looking like wolves at the ready for a good fight. Cardin stopped, Lionel did the same. The two ran. The weapons swung in an incredibly fast flurry, Cardin holding back as little as he had to. He grunted the more time passed. Each and every one of Lionel's strikes were smartly made, going for the best weakness or current opening in the giant's defenses. He was nearly overwhelmed, when, in a final resort, Cardin aimed precisely for the Halberd and let it get stuck in his Mace's grasp. Being the stronger of the two, he tossed both weapons upwards and out of the ring, leaving the two empty handed.

Almost immediately, Cardin and Lionel were back at it again, only with their bare hands as their weapons. It was actually nearly the same as when they had weapons. Lionel made for punches and kicks to hit and greatly wound a man a full head taller than him. Cardin was on the defensive again, but now he was letting himself give out a few punches himself when and where he could. He had spent twice as much time in his life fighting with his fists than his Mace. When he gave punches, Lionel blocked them, but they were powerful enough to force the smaller man back and still make an impact on his aura. Lionel, by difference, didn't make as much damage onto his massive frame, but still managed to keep up with more, better placed punches. It helped that Cardin had armor twice as thick as Sky's.

Then, the greatest turning point in the match had happened. With the martial arts the smaller man had displayed, he knocked Cardin to the ground by latching onto him and kept his left arm in an armbar. The ginger grunted, but the blue haired fighter was locked in. "It's over, Cardin. Tap out or I'm breaking your elbow."

In an insane rush, Cardin stood up, carrying Lionel with his great strength while still in the lock. The smaller man raised a very surprised brow at his moves, but then went for it and snapped the giant's elbow, making the two members of the audience groan and cringe at the sickening _snap._ For a second, all Cardin could feel and think of was the incredible pain his arm was in, barely breathing enough for his lungs to gain the bare minimum of oxygen required. It took all of his will to not use his Semblance then and there. Even with his Aura only a few points _just_ above the redzone, Cardin felt adrenaline rushing through every fiber of his body, even his now useless left arm.

Savagely, he launched a now truly shocked Lionel from his body, rolling on the ground as he watched with awe the still standing, now rampaging giant. With a final boost speed and strength, Cardin gave the best jab he could give to Lionel right in the stomach before he could cover himself. It sent him to the end of the ring, covering his stomach as Cardin charged with another punch ready. Lionel blocked it this time, but the strength of the swing wounded both arms. Impossibly quickly, Cardin grabbed Lionel by the chest piece with his remaining good arm and headbutted him thrice before the best fighter out of the three was finally out cold.

Cardin dropped him and fell himself, leaning on one of the ring's corner tubes and holding his left arm carefully and tightly. His Aura was working on healing the wound, but he knew he could not save himself from a visit to the infirmary. He took deep, slow breaths, trying to at least calm his mind and ignore the pain for the time being. He had been in far more terrible situations with much worse odds before and he had still pulled through. When he looked up again, Lionel was standing with an arm around Dove, needing the assistance for the time being while Russel was kneeling in front of him, shouting at him, probably asking if he was alright or not. Slowly but surely, the sounds from the outside world made it back into his brain to be processed.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. After I say what needs to be said here, I'll go to the hospital. You three will stay here." Dove and Russel looked at him surprised, while Lionel awaited further instructions. There was a glint in his eyes, still there from the shock of his great threshold for pain and his ability to fight with an arm completely incapacitated. It was beyond respect, Cardin was sure. Maybe it even bordered on admiration. It surprised the giant to have warranted as much from the otherwise emotionless man.

"Alright, Lionel, as you can probably guess, your lecture will be the shortest. You hit hard, you hit right, and you're a very tough fucker if you can take my hits like you did back there. But, you can't let your guard down until your opponent's completely out of the fight. I even managed to out-speed you in the last minute of the match. If I had to give you advice, which is little enough as it is, it would be to counter every attack headed your way. If you can't, then try dodging. If you can't do that either, _then_ resort to blocking. If you're up against an opponent stronger than you, which already sets the bar high, then they _will_ be able to wound you through your arms."

The bleeding man held his nose tight and snapped to the right place again, taking a deep, pained breath as he did. Then he nodded, taking his words as a new mission. Cardin had to say, out of the three, he liked Lionel the best. He was a hell of a fighter, a great match against him, and he was a no-bullshit kind of guy. Those qualities deemed great respect from him. It was the kind of profile Cardin would have adored to have from the brother he never had.

"Alright, now the three of you listen up, because this goes as the new training regimen that you will follow every weekday for the rest of our time as a team. Russel, you're gonna run fifteen kilometers every day, do a hundred and fifty squats, fifty push-ups and fifty sit-ups. You're not strong or resistant now, hell, I'd say you're the weakest one of us as it is. You're going to build up that stamina throughout time with the push-ups and sit-ups, and you're gonna reinforce your speed and leg work with the squats and the running.

"Dove, you'll be doing a five kilometer run, seventy-five squats, seventy-five push-ups and seventy-five sit-ups. You're an all-rounder, so improve in every way and ask Lionel for advice on hitting and slashing in all the right places in case your fighting tactics don't work. Lionel… well, I don't need to tell you shit, but if I were to give you an advice, then it would be a ten kilometer run, a hundred squats, a hundred push-ups and a hundred sit-ups to make sure you stay in shape or even grow stronger. Fighting-wise, I've already told you everything.

"The exercises I've given you are natural workouts that you do with your own bodyweight. The better you get, the more you can do. Wherever you came from, it doesn't matter anymore. You're in Beacon now, which means you can eat however much you fucking want without anyone telling you otherwise. Gain weight and gain muscle, being healthily fitter will make you much better fighters as it is. Next weekend, we start working with Semblances and how we can incorporate them into fighting techniques. As for Russel, you're the only one without one yet, we'll work on figuring yours out. Now that we're done here, I'm going to the fucking hospital and getting my arm fixed."

 **Author's Notes: Well, hope you've enjoyed this chapter. It's been a little different from usual, and it's entirely written by me, as you've seen. To make it simple, 'unique' chapters like these will be rare in the first Volume, they will be far more common in the second (though it will be closely following cannon), and Volume three will be far more divergent. Anything and everything post-Volume three will be AU, I'll be driving the road from there by myself. It may be influenced by Volume four, but it's going to be my story from there on out. I hope you guys stick through for the adventure, because it's gonna get a hella lot rockier along the way (but it will also have good peaks, too). Please do review if you've enjoyed or if you think something could be changed/improved.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: Well, I promised, didn't I? I'm not going to lie, I was kind of disappointed with the small amount of reviews last chapter. I know it's been a while, but I've really been busy, guys. That's why I'm posting this chapter so quickly afterwards. It's even longer than the last one, and it has a particularly important event from the canon that plays out completely differently in this story. I hope more familiar territory will motivate you guys to review this time. Either ways, enjoy!**

 **P. M. E. P. A.**

 _He woke up when a bump in the road made the bus jump. Between Hei's boxing lessons coupled with his training regimen and his first year at a Combat School, Cardin had had trouble finding time to sleep. Not that the Orphanage gave him too much of a privilege when it came to that. He sighed, but he smiled too. Eleven more months, and he'd be out of the hellhole for good. He could look forward to a new life with Lucy in their own little apartment outside of Vale's slums. He could still go from his new Combat School to Junior's club given the twenty-minute walking distance between the two. The only problem he had had about the idea was the new 'roommate' that would come live with them in his room._

" _But Lucy, this is our freedom, this is our chance to get out! Why are we taking her?! She's really weird, doesn't talk and spends the entire day sucking her thumb!" Aurum Cor, as the eleven-year-old was called, did not respond to his exasperated cries. Instead she looked at the room, the ceiling and the floor with her right thumb in her mouth. Lucy, however, put her hands protectively on the honey-blonde's shoulders protectively. "Cardin, I am going to say this once and only once. You will not EVER talk about her that way again! She has no family to go to, she has no way of defending herself, and right now she's been assigned to the Orphanage, and you know how terrible it can be! Aury is a special girl with a lot of potential, she just needs help. She needs a home and she needs a family, and I refuse to bask in that 'freedom' you want for us by turning down an innocent little girl who needs the support!_

" _Besides, we're still leaving the Orphanage by next year, we'll just be taking her with us! Now you're going to treat Aury with even MORE respect than a normal lady should receive, you'll protect her from ANYONE that lays a finger on her, and you will NEVER regard her as anything short of that, and that's that!" The girl in question had grown distressed by the yelling and started breathing loudly and letting tears loose with her diminutive whimpers. Lucy had gotten on her knees and caressed her gently and strongly, putting both her hands on her little head and running them down to her shoulders with her perfectly straight blonde hair. The girl calmed herself, sucking her thumb harder as Lucy almost delicately placed her arms around the child and brought her into a gentle hug._

 _Cardin scoffed at the memory, mind returning to the bus. It's not that he had wanted the worst for the girl, he just wanted to enjoy a home with Lucy and forget everything else about the Orphanage with her. He supposed he could make do with her. She was much more quiet than the average prissy girl from Combat School, heck, he didn't think he'd ever heard her speak a word. And she wasn't mute. It was a bit of a nuisance feeding her, considering how if any of the types of foods touched each other on her plate, she wouldn't eat the 'stained food'. He remembered having to switch his meal with hers because she spilled the meatballs on her mashed potatoes. Four months of having her live with Lucy and himself had let him grow accustomed to her own customs, though. He had put his fighting skills to use when someone at his school made fun of her. That night, Lucy bought Cardin his favorite meal._

 _It was then that the bus jumped again over another bump in the road. He didn't remember going over as many on the way to his stop. He came to realize that it was heavily raining, a gray mist plaguing the area as the gray sky poured gray rain drops into the gray road. With the window almost completely covered with watery beads and the outside so hard to look at, it took Cardin a minute to realize that he had slept past his destination. "STOP THE BUS!"_

 _The driver grumbled and halted the long vehicle. Cardin was already out by the time some of the other passengers took note. Ten seconds in the rain and he was already shivering. It was a terrible downpour, one that soaked him past his clothes and stuck them to his skin. The bus started again, the wheels revving and splashing him completely with the great puddles that now contaminated the streets. He would have flipped the bus off if he wasn't so cold. He took off running the opposite direction of the bus. It was the only way he had of making it back to the Orphanage._

 _So he ran. And he ran. And he ran even further. The street came to an end, finally, and he found himself in a rather small fork-like section of the street. Both ways went into alleyways, neither particularly good places to roam alone in such a terrible day. Then again, with the sky so dark with clouds, he doubted anyone would be out there by choice. He damned himself thrice and jogged right, hoping it was the right way. He ran again, past ugly buildings and ugly stores and ugly signs. Many would be scared of them, but in truth, the Orphanage had given him more than a taste of what places like these were like. After all, that's where they got their employees from. Not to mention Junior's varied customers, the big man telling him which ones' weaknesses lied in their purses and which ones' in their pride._

 _Finally, he was coming close to the end of the empty alleyway, the end of the road opening to another thicker, main street. It was the one he recognized, the one that the Orphanage had at its front. Cars could be seen in thick traffic, many of them honking in frustration. It was a sound that Cardin welcomed, as the lack of people had made him grow far more paranoid. He was nearly out, but ten meters from the big exit was a very small path, the cement a lighter gray than the road's. It led to a few more ugly buildings, apparently their back entrances, but it had a roof covering its entirety from the rain._

 _Cardin was thinking with his bones when he decided to stop for a few minutes there. He was shaking to the core and his lips had taken on a light shade of blue. Even then, he had not stopped for himself. He stopped and opened his backpack with shaking hands to view the state in which his school supplies were. They had not been too damaged, thankfully, but some of the books had new curves that came with sudden wetness. He closed it and sat down next to a garbage can, rubbing his hands and rubbing his arms in an attempt to make himself warm again. He heard the talking then. "Look man, I'm real sorry, I don't got the goods just yet. I got half o' 'em, though. Tell Mister Walder that–"_

" _I'm not telling Ser Strigosus anything. He gave you a job, and he gave you the money to do it. You just blew it on hookers and dope again." Cardin sneaked closer into the small alleyway within the bigger alleyway. As it turned out, the path did not completely go in a straight line. Halfway towards its end, it gave way to another path to the right just as thin. There was a large dumpster there. The two talking were next to it, and Cardin couldn't think of two more different people at the moment._

 _One was wearing a brown coat several sizes too big for him, gray baggy pants so low they almost weren't covered by the coat. His sneakers were worn and a faded red, and the beanie on his head was so yellow, he almost looked like a walking lightbulb. His coat didn't make it to his neck, however, which showed a dragon tattoo on it. Though the very pale punk's head was shaved, Cardin could tell his hair color was hazel from his eyebrows. At least from the little bits that weren't covered in piercings. His eyes were a light blue, always shifting nervously. The only thing actually formal about him was a fancy black suitcase that didn't look his._

 _The second man looked that much scarier by comparison. He wore an impeccable black suit, with black pants and black dressing shoes, so well shined the near reflected everything. His tie was black as well, though his dressing shirt was white as were his gloves. His face was impeccable and clean, a good, tan color. His hair, like almost all he wore, was black, shoulder-length and almost wavy, perfectly combed to the sides. It was dry, somehow. He must have been there since before the rain started, Cardin thought. His eyes were the scariest. An obsidian black even darker than the rest of him. They made him look like he had never learnt the word 'mercy'. In the shadows of the alleyway, with the rain making the ceiling sing like a parade of miniature drums, the fancy man remained half hidden._

" _Look Frank, the boss just needs to give me a bit more time. I swear man, I can get the goods 'n' all, I'm telling ya I'm worth my street cred, but I need more–" The shifty man was cut off, and made a noise Cardin would never forget. The punk fell to his knees, grabbing his neck in fear and in pain, or at least that's why the boy assumed the thug was crying. Blood ran from under his palms as the shifty man finally let go of his neck to show a very much gaping wound letting out a cascade of crimson blood. He made gurgling sounds, a bastardization of what it would sound like if a man was drinking and drowning at the same time. By the time he fell on the ground, he stopped moving and he stopped gurgling._

 _It had happened so fast, Cardin had gotten almost no time to understand what had happened. It was only thanks to the fact that the fancy man's black, almost undetectable sickle was visible through the sharp contrast with his glove. He wiped the blade on the punk's brown coat, cleaning it before sheathing it back into his coat. With a careful hand, he picked the fancy black suit case from where it had fallen and dusted it off, untouched by its previous owner's blood. Crouching, Cardin saw two black things moving atop his head, making him a foot taller than he already was. Standing up, he remained still until he turned to face the boy, who had now wet himself with fear._

 _Cardin didn't remember running, but the one thought that went through his mind was that the main street was barely half a block away. If he made it out, he was safe. He almost slowed down when he made it out of the rain, almost out of the alleyway when a hand grasped his shoulder firmly. Cardin felt a sharp pain at the end of the base of his neck. Maybe it was miraculous quick thinking, or maybe it was a survival instinct that was triggered deep within the boy, but the boy jumped. Then came the pain._

 _By the time he fell down, he was already on the main street, where some of the bystanders looked at him and screamed. He made himself turn, feeling warmth running down his neck and chest the way it had when he had pissed himself. Laying on his back, he found the man wearing a scary, skull-like mask that covered his head and neck entirely. It was scowling with big sharp teeth and two big gray visors where his eyes would be. The only openings it had had been for his ears, ironically those of a rabbit's. He was still within the alleyway, and out of the others' sights._

 _He did not wait to watch his target die, turning around, running and taking a great leap that landed him on the roof of a building. Cardin could only lay watching, as people hurried and circled around him, some calling out for ambulances and others looking at where the scary rabbit Faunus had been while he lay thinking to himself. The rain had almost made him forget, but he realized he was in tears. Covered in blood, piss and tears apparently was not worth much in the rain, all losing colors and being washed away in the gray of the day. Wondering why he was crying, he realized that he did not want to die that day._

"Sap. We're collecting sap." Cardin's disbelieving tone brought Dove to snigger and Russel to nod nervously. They were wasting half of Tuesday for collecting sap, which was time he needed to finish his paper on the Great War for Wednesday. It was late enough on Monday for him to feel out of it, only looking forward to a private session at the gym. The team was still sore from its new workout routines, Russel in particular lying on his bed, unmoving. Dove was only doing slightly better, but Lionel had taken it better than the two. Cardin, on the team's chair and desk, had a good view of them all, prompting them to answer his statement.

"Yeah man. Professor Peaches has been real uptight about bringing a shitton of it for her First Aid classes." Russel's tone was laced to that of a moan, as even the simplest of movements irritated several sore spots he had gained throughout the training. Cardin, the only one unfazed with the regimen, remained with a deadpanned, stupefied expression. "We're collecting _sap._ We're training to become some of the most powerful fighters in the world by collecting _sap._ Can someone in this fucking room explain to me the importance of collecting _fucking_ _sap?_ "

"Hey! I'll have you know that Dragon's Blood is an important part of your delicious breakfast meals, you big, dumb, ignorant bastard. Seriously though, there's actually tons of research done on Red Sap for reasons _besides_ it being Golden Honey's main competition. It's actually one of the first substances ever used to protect wounds from aerial bacteria and stop the bleeding when faced with Aura Depletion, and maybe the one of the only materials that actually works better than any artificial serum for short term healing purposes. Due to the bulk of its production being popular in trees natural in Grimm infested forests, it's harder to gain than the artificial, widespread, manmade biofoams.

"It _was_ actually one of the turning points in the Great War, and one of the reasons General Lagune got fucked over. The first one's too long to explain and I'm too damn tired to go over it, but the Faunus' secondary and far more overshadowed reason as to why they won. They used the forests and had immediate first aid treatment for their wounded soldiers while Lagune lost his soldiers to infections and a bunch of foreign diseases. So yeah, the 'fucking sap' is pretty important." Cardin had to remember that Dove learned far more from his own books than he did from actual history classes, which led him to have a smartass remark about everything. He grunted, still not convinced that it was Hunter-worthy work.

"Well, Goodwitch can go fuck herself if she thinks I'm going to spend tomorrow collecting sap when I could be finishing Oobleck's goddamn assignment. I'll be back in a while, I'm heading to the gym." The three grunted their goodbyes, Dove focusing on another book, Lionel taking apart another classical watch and Russel scribbling on a paper on his bed. Cardin counted twenty minutes from the moment he left his room to when he reached the place where the team had practiced its new drills. The six-foot-nine tall man had already gone through with his strengthening routines, so he stuck to practicing several jabs and hooks on a sandbag held up by great, thick chains.

"You ready for 'nother round, punk?" Cardin grinned, his back to the white-haired professor. It had been one of the few things to look forward to that Monday. Port took and gave punches like a man, and he never used their matches as an excuse to get the Hunter in Training talking. If Cardin felt like talking, Port was all ears. If he didn't, then he would gladly concentrate on giving out more hits with the occasional snarky commentary on being on the winning end. If he managed to give Cardin a run for his money, then the student would hear his witty retorts and give a few back.

"That depends, are you ready to break today, old man?" Port gave a dismissive grunt at his opponent's dry remark. "Break? Winchester, the day I lose to you is the day I resign my office and give you my place as Beacon's Grimm Combat Expert. And trust me, I've got a lot of years in me yet!"

"Well, I hope you're ready to give up your office, Port. I could use a paycheck for easy work now and again." That earned him a very loud and disbelieving laugh from the professor. It made the redhead grin further with malice. Soon enough, the two were within the ring, circling each other and boxing smartly and on the defense. Matches with Port weren't really matches to win, they were simply outlets within the week where Cardin could vent his frustration without getting in trouble for it. Port could handle it more than well enough, and the leader of CRDL suspected it was an outlet for the elder as well. So far, they had been at it for a week, practicing almost every after both were done with their classes. It had started, quite ironically, the day Cardin found out Jaune had cheated his way into Beacon. Funny how so many good things had come out of that day.

"So, you've been busy lately?" Port groaned through short, deep breaths. Despite what could almost be considered hyperventilation, the moustached professor was far from being out of the fight. _Hell, he's built like a fucking wall_ , Cardin noted. The two were shirtless and in their boxing shorts and sneakers, leaving their torsos and scars out to breathe. They held two very distinct musculatures. Cardin had near-perfectly outlined muscles, but he had focused on building his body far more on strength than 'model muscles'. Port's own, by comparison, barely had shadows to differentiate them. He was, however, extremely bulky frame-wise, even a bit more than Cardin himself, who had almost an entire head's advantage. It was as if he had traded in his cartilages for hard cement. No, cement was soft by comparison.

"Who's asking?" Cardin responded, raising a brow with Port's new intervention. Most of the times, they had been silent fights with a little verbal backlash from both sides. The few times they _did_ talk, it was the student that had started the conversation. Cardin had no intention on having anyone ask about his past. Port chuckled and handed out a few more jabs. "Well, for some odd reason, Professor Peaches just couldn't keep quiet about the fact that some overgrown, reckless student had gotten his elbow snapped backwards over the weekend."

At that, Cardin actually laughed. That was the kind of small talk he could do with. He made for a fast hook to the right of Port's head, which was deftly blocked, as was his follow up strike. "Well, I was reviewing my team in fighting expertise, and one of the bastards damn near handed my ass to me. Still won, though, and I fought against the three of them one at a time without any downtime."

"Heh, I'd have liked to see that. I was wondering what the hell it would take for someone to snap your arm like a twig for our dear Medic Professor to keep going on about it." The two shared a laugh but soon got quiet again. The match went for a while in that silence until the two agreed on ending the fight. Cardin leaned on the rubber lines that connected the corners of the ring. Port was already down, looking in his pack and tossing the bigger of the two an energy drink. Cardin nodded his thanks and thought back on the next day. He would definitely not be doing the same as all others and collecting his sap. He figured he would send Jaune a threatening message that he would be coming with his team the next day while he finished Oobleck's essay.

"Thinking about your next target?" Cardin looked Port's way more quickly than he'd have liked. Quick responses at incriminating questions were generally linked to the guilty. So, the indigo eyed fighter raised a lazy brow and waited for the combat teacher to continue. At the elder's chuckles, the giant felt a bit of relief, knowing his blackmailing had not been caught yet. "I mean who might by the next unfortunate soul that goes up against you."

"Not yet. I'm thinking about fighting my team again by next semester, sizing them up again and seeing if they've improved. What about you? Don't you have anyone _your_ age willing to fight you?" His sly commentary earned him an annoyed grunt. "No. Barty prefers handling the intelligence and reconnaissance of an operation and Glynda doesn't like fighting people in her spare time."

"Hold on, hold on, you're all in the same age group?!" Now that had taken him by surprise. "Oh, because my hair's white? Don't be stupid, we were on the same team back when _we_ were students at Beacon! How do you think Professor Ozpin hired us when he became Headmaster of this academy?"

He supposed he could understand. Port's hair was in fact gray, but it was just about the only sign of aging he had. He didn't have so much as a wrinkle on his forehead for whenever he raised his brows. The other pair, by comparison, were easy to imagine in a same age group. He imagined the three in a team and, eccentric as the idea was, found them a rather fitting combination. But going over their first and last names in his head, he couldn't help but find himself lost as to how the hell they got their team name. It made him wonder who the fourth had been. When he voiced the thought, Port gave a proud laugh before shouting, "Why, we were the invincible team GVPO!"

 _Gunpowder, I guess it fits._ The young man pondered over the melancholy in his otherwise proud attitude for a few seconds before waving the professor goodbye. The tank-like Hunter returned it, both putting on shirts and making their way back to their rooms. By the time Cardin got back, Russel was sleeping, and Lionel looked like he was ready to turn off for the night as well. Dove had his lamp on, still nose deep in his war novel. Cardin took a quick shower, and by the time he was out again, the martial artist of the group had also been consumed by his subconscious. Cardin walked silently to Dove's bedside, where the light brunette in question looked up at him expectantly.

"Dove, it's nearly midnight. I'm not here to tell you at what time you need to turn off the light, but you need to get some shuteye. It's been fucking with you lately, and you're better off not falling behind in class." Dove looked at him with his drowsy blue eyes. There were tiny arteries coating his sclera and dark bags under his eyes to prove his point. Apparently, the smaller of the two had too little of a fight in him to bicker with his leader, because he nodded, shut the book and turned off the light. Cardin nodded in return, a gesture missed by the other in the dark of the room, and returned to his own bed, letting his mind wander to his own Neverland.

The buzzer sounded in what felt like only a few minutes after he closed his eyes, but there was no mistaking the sun's first rays pouring through their window. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he found the energy within him to grab his things and put on his armor. After all, it was good old Field Trip Day, the day in which they would do the most monotonous and time wasting task a group of monster hunting students could do. _Crap, I forgot to message Jaune about his new 'job'._

He immediately got out his E-Scroll and sent a summarized version of his thoughts to the useless blonde. The leader of the bunch waited for the rest to finish preparing themselves before heading out to class. From there, the clock seemed to spin on caffeine, as they were in the Bullheads in no time. Getting in with his team, he looked at the two other first year teams that would accompany their group with Goodwitch. In one, the all-female team boarded the air ride with varied expressions and postures. In the other, his current 'assistant' was being helped by his teammates, who tried to ease his relentless stomach. He growled in disgust.

Time flew with the wind this time and they had landed in a forest which, from above, looked like a restless sea of crimson. Reaching the ground, he found that it was not just the trees' leaves that had such a vivid shade of red, but the grass itself as well. The only contrast to the primary colors of the Forest of Forever Fall was the average shade of dull brown that belonged to the bark of the trees. Even then, cutting one open would prove that their insides are littered with the pink of their sap. It was all so red that there were times when he wondered if he had not accidentally triggered his Semblance. After looking around enough, marching with the other students, he started to tune in on the blonde professor's words.

"Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But, we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And _I'm_ here to ensure none of you die while doing so." Apparently, the blonde moron from JNPR had tripped on some branch, because the only thing that had stopped his fall had been Cardin himself. It made him turn around with a fierce scowl on his face. All he had in his hands were two jars, his and the blonde's own. How he had managed to not look at the floor before tripping was beyond the redhead's imagination. Goodwitch's instructions caught his attention again.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of Red Sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!" Cardin was cringing internally at her words again, but he refrained himself from saying anything. If the time came when the matter was important enough for him to tell her to shove her Riding Crop up her ass, he would do it without hesitation. But, until then, he would keep his mouth shut and grow frustrated with the impossibly monotonous task she had given him. Instead, he forced a grin on his face and gave a 'friendly' slap on Jaune's shoulder. "C'mon, buddy! Let's go."

Cardin watched the blonde look at his team with remorse and how his redheaded teammate did the same before turning her back on him. He felt a swell of accomplishment deep inside him for that moment. He walked away with his team in tow, the group wondering what their leader had done to get Arc to do his work for him. None of the three questioned him, anyways. Finding a spot to themselves, the three set out to collect sap and Jaune went tree by tree filling up both jars. Cardin was sitting with his back to one of the pillars of oak, taking out his E-Scroll and working on the conclusion to his essay.

He was almost done when the blonde stood at his feet. The leader of JNPR said a few words, but Cardin didn't hear them. He was almost done. The slender 'student' spoke up again, but the ginger ignored him once more. He could tell Jaune was going to speak again and speak louder, so he held up one forefinger as a sign for him to close his mouth. Waiting a few seconds and understanding that the blonde got the message, he finished up the final sentence to his damned essay and sent it to his own e-mail, ensuring it would not be lost. Standing up and towering over Arc, Cardin raised an expectant eyebrow.

The blonde nervously handed him one of his jars, which the redhead near tore from his grasp. The smaller yelped in surprise, which made the bigger laugh cruelly. He put a large hand on the blonde's head and ruffled his hair in a way that made the other groan in discomfort. "Nicely done, Jauney-boy! Looks like you and I are gonna be doing business for quite some time."

By the time he was done, he began to walk towards his three other teammates when he heard the blonde shout, "No! I'm done taking orders from you and acting like some sort of servant! I've had enough!"

Turning around again with an incredulous face, the first thing that Cardin noticed was that Jaune's scowl was a bullshit scowl. The kind meant to intimidate and hide one's own fear. That, coupled with his _profound_ words led Cardin to bend over, grasp his knees and roar in laughter. By the time he was done, Arc's façade had fallen, obviously not getting the results he intended. " _You_ think _you've_ had enough?! Holy hell, that really is hysterical!"

Cardin howled again and again, prompting the boy to look further and further demoralized. Even Dove joined in, Russel holding a anxious smirk while Lionel shook his head at the blonde. Once he got his posture straight again, the giant walked back over to where Jaune stood and placed an ironically comforting hand on his shoulder. "Oh, I know you've had a _horrible_ life, sucking on that silver spoon and making puppy eyes at anyone and everyone who's ever told you you're not qualified for the job. Don't worry, you've got a pretty enough face. I'm sure you'll be hired by some old perverted millionaire so you can suck him off and get rich through him. Tell you what, you are just _perfect_ for the job. After all, you have the brains and the brawn of the average street hooker, so you're pretty much set for life."

He turned around and walked back to his team, _again._ Dove was the one who was howling now, Lionel already up and ready to walk back to the rendezvous. Russel was laughing somewhat nervously, before it turned into a fearful frown. "Oh crap, Arc, _don't–_ "

Cardin didn't have time to process the knife wielder's warning when he heard the glass shattering on his back. Once more he heard the white noise, the faint train-whistle that came with the rage bubbling from his stomach. He took a shaky finger and touched the back of his armor, finding it to be stickier than metal should ever be. Looking at his finger, he found it to have Red Sap all over it, which only made him wonder how much of _HIS_ armor was now coated in the sticky substance. He turned around, lips white with fury and the now very shrunken and regretful blonde. He remembered the day they had met, how he had dirtied _his_ armor in their first seconds of knowing each other. Yang had been the one to save him that day. She wasn't there now. Hoarse laughter escaped his throat. "You're mine now, Arc."

Only instead of walking up to Arc and drilling him a new one, a powerful stroke to his back sent him barreling against a tree. He heard the roar then, an oversized Ursa Major at least six meters tall letting out something slightly short of a shockwave from the strength of its throat. The three hopped backwards getting some distance between themselves and the beast, getting their weapons and prepping for a fight. Jaune barely managed to roll out of the way and follow his teammates, Cardin assumed because he didn't want to be alone with the beast. The great monster set its eyes on the giant, and Cardin gave a scowl as he took off for his Mace. He knew he was in the Aura yellowzone from the preemptive strike he had not readied himself for.

He was ready now to jump and dodge the next swipe the beast would send. He did not expect for the Ursa to ram him head on, leaving him rolling on the ground and in the redzone. He only had enough time to stand up and look up before being given a terrible swipe. Suddenly, he saw his blood everywhere. There was a thick, open scratch on his hand, the chest piece of his Phoenix armor was badly scraped, managing to take a bit of his skin from the deepness of the strike. What made him shiver was the warmth of his neck. Putting his wounded hand on the great piece of his neck that had been stripped off, he felt cold and he fell flat on the ground. This time, he did not stop it. When his Semblance activated, everything in his vision became contaminated by a cloud of red that turned everything into a shade of crimson. Then he felt the wrath. He felt the pure, unadulterated wrath coursing through his entire body.

…

"C'mon you guys, hurry up! Someone could be in danger!" Pyrrha's shouts made her sound professional about it, but Yang could tell that her mind was thinking about a certain blond goof. She looked around, her little sister shouting things like 'to victory' and 'this means war'. It made her laugh while her two other teammates rolled their eyes at their leaders' antics. At least Blake had a smile on her face. Ren and Nora were running just as fast as the rest, the former holding a serene yet determined expression while the latter held a smile on her face. Noticing the red stickiness around her lips, Yang couldn't help but laugh.

"I think I see it… whatever it is! It's really big, looks like a good fight! I call dibs!" Her shouts rang loud enough for the other six to listen, leading her little sister to shout 'darn it' in not thinking about it earlier. As for the rest, it worked on getting them to chuckle a bit and stop worrying so much. Well, everyone except for Pyrrha. It was when they started getting close to a very big Ursa that they found four running through a bush with terrified expressions on their faces. Yang couldn't help but grin, "What, are you guys chickening out of a–"

"Shut up and stay still, _all of you._ " Yang stopped smiling then, and the others grew worried again. In learning to live with the Ice Queen, she found that Weiss _did_ in fact have her soft spots and her bits of humanity, as much as she heiress didn't want to admit it. Lionel one-upped Weiss in every way when it came to that, and she had never heard him come so close to yelling with distress on his voice. Maybe that's what led her to stop, as well as the others. Save for Pyrrha, _again._

"Jaune, you're okay!" But Jaune looked terrible, horribly guilty. "Cardin's back there with that Ursa, guys, and it's my fault! We have to do something!"

"At this point, there's nothing left to do. The poor bastard's put the nail on his coffin." Russel's frightened tone surprised them all, the first to react being Ruby. "You're going to give up your leader like _that?_ You're a _terrible_ partner! He needs our help right now and–"

"He wasn't talking about Cardin." Lionel's silent, stressed remark made them all stay silent. He was fidgeting with some rounds for his Halberd until he finally got them through, immediately whipping it up and aiming at the scene from where he couldn't be seen. Yang and all the others came close to the bush, looking over it and finding Cardin to be in a pile of blood. The blonde was shocked to see him so close to death, even more so that his teammates did nothing about it. "That's it, I'm going in!"

Jaune started running towards the Ursa, making it out of their safe place before he was shot squarely in the back of the neck, falling over limp. Everyone turned to Lionel, whose face showed not a hint of remorse. Pyrrha's face turned as red as her hair. "What's the matter with you! He's going down there to help your leader and you _shoot him?!_ _Why_ would you–"

"To save his life. He doesn't want to come between what's about to happen. He's already exposed enough as it is." Sky's cool remark disarmed her. Yang, from the corner of her eye, found Cardin twitching. With morbid curiosity, she let her jaw drop as she watched the man on the verge of death stand up, shaking viciously all the while. He had a nasty wound on his neck that had somehow not killed him yet by bleeding him out and the front of his armor was coated in his blood. But his eyes were the scariest thing to look at. They remained their shade of indigo, but the previously white sclera had turned into a glowing, menacing red. "What's _happening_ to him?!"

"P.M.E.P.A." When Lionel whispered the letters to answer her, he aimed his Halberd's rifle again, not at the Ursa, but at Cardin. Weiss, petrified at the scene before her, managed to ask, "What's that mean?"

"Pre-Mortem Extreme Physical Augmentation." Dove's answer brought confusion mainly to Ruby, who did not understand the acronym. Yang was too proud to admit it, but she wasn't exactly sure about what it meant either. Then she looked back at Cardin and was astounded by what happened next. Within a few seconds, all of his wounds disappeared, scar-less skin replacing that which had been stripped of him. The Ursa Major gave another roar at its renewed opponent, a lot more deafening up close. What shocked them more was when Cardin opened his mouth. " _H_ H _H_ H _A_ A _A_ A _A_ A _A_ A _U_ U _U_ U _U_ U _U_ U _G_ G _G_ G _H_ H _H_ H _!_ "

And then he ran. Yang had never seen him run as fast in all the times she had witnessed him fighting. He wasn't on Ruby's level, but then again, no one was. At the moment though, with the exception of her sister, he was faster than _all_ of them. When the Ursa struck, Cardin slapped the claw away and the Ursa fell. Which let him land a punch square in the great armored bear's temple, which sent it flying back, crashing into a tree and _breaking_ it. Yang was strong, but she had never seen someone manhandle an Ursa with his _bare hands._ He might actually be one of the few people that could fight back against _herself_ when she went all out with her Semblance.

Cardin jumped, leaving a small crater on the ground and landing on the Ursa Major's back, forcing a whimper from its massive frame. The rabid giant then hopped down next to its head, and grabbed it by its head's exoskeleton. With his left hand he held it still, with the right he started hammering it. "YOU. DO NOT. PUNCH ME. BEHIND. MY BACK. AND GET. AWAY. WITH IT. YOU _STUPID. MOTHER. FUCKER!_ "

For every pause in his angered roar, he let loose a thundering punch. First it cracked the exoskeleton, then it broke it, then it shattered it. Soon enough, he was at it with the Ursa's _actual_ skull, letting a fountain's worth of its black blood leap with every strike. Eventually, Cardin had resorted to screaming and pounding the beast with both hands until there was nothing left of the head, the rest of the corpse dissolving soon after. Broken branches caught his attention and his neck near snapped at where they came from.

Two significantly smaller Ursai had been watching their elder brethren be brutalized by the extremely powered human motionlessly. They did not move. That was more than enough to seek Cardin's rage. "AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?! WHAT?! YOU WANT ME?! YOU WANNA KILL ME?! I'M RIGHT HERE YOU FUCKING PANSIES! THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! COME ON! _COME ON!_ "

For a second, Yang thought she was hallucinating, but then she blinked several times and found that the Ursai had run _away._ The Grimm, driven by nothing but the desire to destroy Humanity and powered by their negative emotions _had run away._ Almost as if on purpose, Jaune decided to stir himself awake in the worst possible moment. Pyrrha was about to shout to him when Lionel clasped his hand over her mouth. "The reason the Ursa Major got him worked up was because he was assaulted unknowingly, which got him to activate his Semblance as a last resort. Calling Arc right now would be the single dumbest thing you could do, because right now, he's looking to fight anything he might consider a challenge."

With that, he aimed at Cardin, who now found Jaune alone on the ground, dizzy and unsure of where he was. Yang looked on nervously at the scene to follow, as did the others, but couldn't help but comment, "Uh, I don't think the Concussion Round you used on Jaune will have a lot of effects on him."

"I know. That's why I loaded a dozen of them." Yang looked around the group to see their reactions. Only Lionel had kept himself calm, and though Dove and Russel had been shocked, the two looked at it like it wasn't the first time they'd seen him do that. The three members of JNPR and the rest of RWBY, however, were an entirely different story. Ruby looked like she would have wanted Cardin's autograph for singlehandedly, emphasis on _hand_ , taking on an Ursa. Only she was too scared to ask him for it. Blake and Weiss shared the same expression. A lot like the one when they had realized they'd be taking on the Nevermore the day of their Initiation.

Nora's expression was almost comical, mirroring Ruby's in the sense that she was completely slack jawed at the giant's power. Ren looked distressed, fingers hovering over his automatic pistols in case worse turned to worst. Pyrrha looked along the same lines, only even more anxious with Cardin now only a few steps from Jaune. Yang wondered what her own face looked like. She got the feeling that if someone snapped a picture of her right now, they'd never let her live it down.

" _Wh-Wha…_ What hap–" And just like that, Jaune remained on the ground, stricken with fear at the enraged, ominous figure looming above him. Then Cardin had regained his Mace. Lionel didn't shoot. Cardin raised the great metal weapon. Lionel didn't shoot. Cardin swung it down. " _Sky!_ "

As low as her voice had been, Yang felt it would have been enough to cut through reinforced steel. When the head of the Mace hit the ground everyone feared the worst. Only when Cardin raised his weapon back up again did the group realize that he had destroyed the ground next to Jaune's head. Even the blonde on the ground seemed shock by this, until Cardin held his Mace with his right hand and pointed at him with his left menacingly.

"I. AM. DONE WITH YOU! YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" His roars cut the wind again and made Jaune sink closer to the dirt and the others back away in fear. The only two who had stayed grounded in their positions had been Lionel and Pyrrha, the former still aiming through his scope. The blonde tried to say something, find a response to the statement, but apparently, his throat was completely dry. Cardin only got angrier. "YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU SOMETHING?! YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU WHY I WENT OUT OF MY WAY TO FUCK WITH YOU?! NOT MAKE YOUR LIFE _HELL,_ BUT JUST TO _BARELY_ FUCK WITH YOU?! BECAUSE YOU'RE WEAK, ARC, YOU ARE COMPLETELY, IRREDEEMABLY WEAK! AND YOUR KIND DISGUSTS ME! HELL, YOU EVEN HAD TO _SNEAK_ INTO THIS FUCKING ACADEMY AND FAKE YOUR TRANSCRIPTS WHEN I'VE MET PEOPLE WHO'VE GOTTEN HALF THE SHIT YOU'VE ALWAYS HAD THAT DESERVED THAT PLACE _FAR_ MORE THAN YOU _EVER WILL!_

"WHAT?! YOU THINK I HAVEN'T MET YOUR KIND BEFORE! YEAH, I HAVE! BACK WHERE I COME FROM, US _STREET RATS_ WOULD ALWAYS GET _FUCKED OVER_ BY THE BIGGEST CRIMINAL IN THE AREA! AND WHEN WE WENT TO THE COPS, WHEN WE ASKED, NO, _BEGGED_ FOR THEIR HELP, THE BASTARDS APOLOGIZED AND DID NOTHING! YOU KNOW WHY?! THEY WERE TOO WEAK TO GET OVER THE BUREAUCRATIC _BULLSHIT_ AND HELP US WHEN WE NEEDED THEM! AND THEY WERE TOO COWARDLY TO FACE THE CROOKS WHILE THEY HAD A GRAND FUCKING TIME MAKING SLAVES OUT OF US!"

Cardin stopped, grasping his forehead and groaning in pain. No one dared to move, but in the back of her mind, Yang thought about how his words, 'faking transcripts'. She knew Jaune could be lacking at times, but she didn't think him capable of doing something like that. Then again, when had Cardin ever lied? Speaking of the giant, he opened his eyes again, both plagued by big, dark bags that spoke of soreness like nothing else could. His sclera were fading from red to pink and back to their normal white again, if not with a bit of arteries as well. He was panting now, visibly tired, but he pointed at Jaune a shaky finger again.

"Let me tell you something about people like _you,_ Arc. You're the poster child for that stupid propaganda that 'anyone can be a Hunter'. You will pass and become a Hunter _only_ because you have a professional on your team whose help you were too stupid to turn down, and because you've got a face for the public. If you ever half-ass something or just fuck it up completely, you'll simply give them puppy-dog eyes and they'll forgive you and put you back on the field again.

"Here's what _you_ and lots of your little friends _don't_ know. _Hunter work_ isn't _hero work._ Someday, years after you barely just manage to graduate from this place, you'll get a mission where you'll be forced to make a sacrifice or kill an innocent to save a larger group of people. _But,_ since you'll be too _weak_ to make that hard choice, you'll hesitate, and every one of those people from the mission will die on _your_ account. I know this because I've seen it before, and you _will_ fall because of this. When you _do_ fail, you'll flash your big, puppy-dog eyes again and they'll forgive you and pin the blame on someone else. But when that _does_ happen, I _will_ find you. It may take me days, weeks, even _months,_ but I _will_ find you, and _then_ I'll kill you, because if I don't, more people will die because of _your_ stupidity. Because in the end, you are, at your core, a _weak_ man in the wrong line of work."

With that, Cardin stomped away. Soon after, Lionel took his eye of the scope and trotted after the giant, deeming the situation clear from danger again. Dove lightly elbowed Russel and gestured to where four sap jars lay still, the two picking them up and running after the pair. The big man's words still rang through their heads, from his savage roars to his ruthless backlash. It left an air of weariness and an air of… guilt. Or at least, Yang thought it was. Looking at the giant almost out of her line of sight, Yang swore that for a second, she saw his back glow red from beneath the armor.

 **Author's Notes: Well, there you guys have it. Cardin's Semblance was shown against the Major Ursa from the Forever Fall chapters. I hope this settles that little mystery, and I hope you enjoy my take on those chapters. Now, I know what Cardin said at the end of this chapter was harsh, but take away the curse words and tone it down a bit and you get my opinion on Jaune. Call me a heretic, but I don't think he's capable of doing what's necessary to win or fight the battles against the Grimm. He's in several ways weak and too stubborn to accept help (he accepts it from Pyrrha at this point in the canon, but you know what I mean). Consider Cardin's explosion at Jaune at the end the result of a terrible life of physical and emotional abuse (as you've seen from the bits at the beginning of these chapters). I don't like to overdo things, but I think that what Cardin said, given what he's lived through, is well within his boundaries. By the way, what did you guys think of this chapter's introduction. This time, PLEASE let me know through a review, they're my only motivation at this point.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: I know, I've been away for an unforgivably long amount of time. I've got some good news on that though. I had a story which I hated writing (which I wasted months on due to writer's block after writer's block on it) and I finally decided to terminate it, so it won't be a roadblock anymore. Secondly, I've got at least four more chapters to write for this story before I move on to the others to give it some love and so you know that this has not been forgotten. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long, but I hope you enjoy!**

 **Of Rats and Men**

 _The sounds of faint, electronic beeping woke him up. It took him a few seconds to wake up fully, his eyes encrusted in sleep. When he did, all he saw was white. For a second he assumed he had died and made it into heaven, or at least a bright afterlife. When his focus regained its confidence, he was able to make out a very pristine stark room. It was simple, but a simple that was way more elegant than the ugly simple the Orphanage had. But then maybe it was simply because it looked very clean. When he finally found the source of the titillating noise, he finally came to understand he was in a hospital._

 _Shifting the covers a bit off him so he could sit up, he found a huge bandage that reached one end of his neck and made it all the way under the opposite side of his chest. He took a shaky hand, from the arm that wasn't connected to the blood bag through the injection-tube, and grazed his finger over the soft white material. There was no pain, but he flinched nonetheless. Flashes and images came to his mind immediately. The dark alleyway. The heavy downpour. The man in the suit. The rabbit skull with the big grey eyes. He almost wet himself again from fear._

 _That seemed to have steered something up because the monitor was beeping faster now. It took him a few seconds to connect the dots and realize that it was for his heart. He blinked several times before a nurse walked in, rushing to his side. She said some words, something about him 'settling back down' and 'relaxing'. When she grabbed his shoulder though, he started thrashing, remembering the gloved hand that nearly got his throat slit. He spasmed, trying as best he could to get out of her grip, a hard objective considering half his body was still asleep. The nurse called out a doctor. The beeping hastened. The doctors came. The syringe pierced his arm. Darkness consumed him again._

 _His second awakening was much more peaceful by comparison. His body wasn't as limp and numb as it used to be, so he felt more freedom to use both hands. Having an elegant, medical band-aid to replace the tube sucking his blood also eased his nerves greatly. The greatest comfort and painkiller was the tall redhead, sleeping in a chair by his side. He was so relieved, for once, he didn't mind young, eleven-year-old Aury napping on a chair beside his sister, sucking her thumb as she slumbered. He was alive, and he was with Lucy again. That was all that mattered._

 _He must have made some noise, because even though his heartbeat was even, the older girl stirred up rather quickly. She was by his side immediately after, and it took all of her willpower to not hug him then and there. He almost did it for her, but the pain from his newly closed wound had him sprawling back on the bed. They settled for having her caress the bangs that fell on his forehead, sweeping them gently to the sides so they could look into each other's eyes. She smiled at him, though her eyes were of a pinkish taint, a telltale sign that she had been weeping not long before._

" _Hello Cardin." Her voice was soft. Any louder and she might have broken into sobs, at least as far as the boy could imagine. Tears still managed to escape from her twin indigo orbs, betraying the feel the beaming expression was meant to give. He tried to smile back at her too, but his face was too lazy, as was most of his body. It was probably so he couldn't feel the pain from the cut. Still, the two stared at each other for a while, sad, but at peace. Lucy held out her hand to grab his. "Cardin, do you know what today is?"_

" _The day I get out?" He wondered aloud, curiosity now filling the dulled void of his mind. Lucy shook her head._

" _I'm afraid that's next week. Today's something much, much better. You should know." He raised an eyebrow at that, trying to think about what she was getting at. Her smile lost its edge of sadness, if only for a little while. "It's your birthday, Cardin. Your thirteenth birthday."_

" _Oooh, yeah, I forgot about that." Thirteen years old. He shrugged internally. It was the same as every other year, he didn't find anything particularly special about it. Lucy's next birthday, though, her eighteenth birthday… that day would become a personal holiday for him. The day they'd finally be free from the Orphanage. That'd be the day they could finally be happy. "That's good, I guess. Wait. I'm in the hospital. The Orphanage doesn't like to spend a lot of money on any of us. Does this cost a lot of money? I'm sure I can go out fine now."_

" _Cardin, nothing in the world right now is more important than your wellbeing, so don't even think that. Even if any problems come up, I'd handle them. I almost lost my little brother, and I'm not about to lose him because he was antsy to get out of the bed. Besides, the second Hei heard about the whole thing, he put up some of his men to look into the bastard responsible, and he was so kind he's paying this whole thing for us. You don't need to worry about anything now." Cardin smiled. He wished Junior could be here right now, but he knew the hospital was pretty far away from his club, and the giant was already paying for his doctors and bed and everything at the hospital._

" _Cardin." Lucy was serious now, and it made Cardin tense up slightly. He knew he'd done nothing wrong, or at least he thought he'd done nothing wrong, and that Lucy was even gentler than usual. Still, he learned that people suddenly turning very serious was never usually a good sign. When he attentively looked at her, she averted her gaze just to look at her hand holding his before bringing the other one, taking his left hand and wrapping it entirely with both her own. She looked back in his eyes, still serene and composed, but with a loving shade to her features._

" _I can't give you a present this year, and I really wish I could. It's been tough, and these last few days have been agonizing to get through, and that's just from my end. I even can't imagine how you feel, how you've been after all this… but I'm not going to let you go empty-handed from all of this. You're not just a boy anymore, you're on your way to becoming a man in a few years, and I can see just how great you'll be by the end of this. And now you're finally old enough for me to give this to you, and I couldn't think of anyone else I trust enough to do this with."_

 _Her body started glowing, something that surprised Cardin. Her hand was very warm now, a comforting kind of warm, but far more imposing than what the body can offer. He felt it stretching out, coming through his hand and into his body. Suddenly, his body was just as embraced in the warmth as his left hand was in her own fingers. And with that, she readily recited. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."_

He was walking back again to the cafeteria, stomach aching from being deprived of any kind of meal throughout his hours of sleep. He was in armor already, and back in their dorm room, his bag full of clothes was ready for his departure. Getting to the serving place, he served himself the usual amount of a monstrously huge amount of food, probably enough for a starving bear. If bears were ever interested in eggs or pancakes or any of the sweets provided by Beacon as morning cuisine for their students. Once he was done loading up the two plates on his tray, he walked back to their usual place to find the same rabbit girl who had sat there a while ago. When he got behind her, he just stared tiredly and derisively. It didn't take long for her to realize she was being watched.

"Oh, _Cardin,_ I-I'm sorry, the other spots were taken earlier and I took longer than usual to eat and-and…" She stopped stammering when she saw him standing up, still as a statue, with only furrowed brows to denote his frustrated state. She stopped talking, getting up and going to an empty table on the other side, looking back half paranoid that he might do something to her while she wasn't looking. She was surprised when he simply sat down and started chowing down, as were the few students in the hall that were there to witness the surprisingly non-aggressive event. Cardin scowled at that. _If she's gonna be too fucking scared to stand up for herself in a Hunter academy, then that's her own grave that she's digging. I'm not about to teach her any better, she's got her own damn team to do that._

Cardin looked up from his meal to the table across from his. Teams RWBY and JNPR had been looking at him curiously, nervously. The second he met their gazes though, they immediately redirected their attention elsewhere. Jaune in particular shrank away from it, looking shamefully at his own breakfast before taking a bite from it. Pyrrha placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. For the most part, his underlings remained loyal and RWBY remained friendly, but some of the gazes that turned on the blonde had hints of doubtfulness of him. He supposed that's what would happen after he'd screamed his lungs out on the pathetic Arc. The rest of CRDL had told him the full story after he had calmed down on his way back.

He could tell they were going every single one of the words he'd roared that day, trying to look at him under a different light, but that just made Cardin angrier. He'd stopped 'bullying' Jaune, and by extension Velvet, though her humiliation had only been that one other time in the cafeteria, but not out of some false kindness in his heart. He simply didn't have any more tolerance for the two. If he engaged in anything directly related to someone with their kind of weakness, it'd be directly with his Mace, and he wasn't particularly enthusiastic with the idea of going to prison over a pair of idiots. Still, he saw most members of the two teams observing him with the same fucking _pity_ people would give to stray dogs. "What the fuck are _you lot_ looking at?"

They flinched at that, immediately going back to their meals. Through careful hearing and the fact that she had accidentally spoken too loud, he heard Schnee mutter to the others ' _I told you he hadn't changed_ '. He had a small grin on his face at that. _Good. You better get that through your goddamn heads._ Not long after came his team. Cardin had showered first and hadn't bothered waiting for them, though they didn't mind. It'd taken a whole week for the squad's leader to cool down, and fortunately, today was the start of their long weekend. It meant they finally got to return to Vale City. Much as the redhead wanted to pay a visit to the Orphanage, there was business he had to settle. _They'll just have to survive without me for a bit longer._

Silence placated their group on the table, the giant more than the rest. They were done soon enough, immediately getting up to go to their room and grab their bags. He was surprised that, in spite of their early departure, for some godforsaken reason the other two renowned teams of their year had caught up to them. They would have gladly separated ways if the route wasn't so specific, but alas, they had to endure each others' presence for a while longer. Cardin _did_ raise a brow, however, when Russel waved to some of them. Most gave neutral reactions, with maybe one being negative, but Ruby did seem to beam and wave back. Dove was the one who, smiling 'innocently' towards them, got mostly frowns in return, making the blue-eyed sword wielder chuckle. Lionel didn't even bother looking in their direction.

When they made it to the airship, _then_ they made sure to truly get away from each other. Surprisingly, RWBY and JNPR also went to different spots on the ship. Cardin had half expected an alliance between the eight to stand against them. He shrugged at the false notion. _It'd have been more of a challenge, anyways._ The ship finally took off, and the man was incredibly relieved that there was no impromptu or practiced speech from Goodwitch reminding them to be good people. Silence was much more prominent this time around, and this time, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren were doing teamwork to keep their leader calm throughout the flight. _Good. He pukes on me again, I'll make him lick my armor clean._

Cardin stretched his limbs when he got off the great, metal beast that carried him and several other Beacon students that were taking the long weekend to return to Vale. Lionel, Dove and Russel flanked him, taking a detour from most students when they turned to the richer side of the city by the port. Theirs was a different destination, the routes parents didn't ever want their kids walking through, where scoundrels and fiends flourished. When they made it far enough in to smell the shit in the air, the strongest of them smiled. _Home, sweet home._ It was a bitter thought, and the joy he could find mainly consisted in those he'd meet nearby, namely those he could and _would_ hurt.

"Gentlemen, welcome back to Old Vale City, where the shit comes from the drains _and_ the restaurants, unless you've got a whole cartel sucking you off." Dove drawled, smiling a nostalgic grin with a good amount of satirical bitterness in his voice. Lionel simply raised a brow, looking around at the buildings, going from nice and clean and elegant to dirty and industrialized and packed to the brim. His tone was indifferent, _apathetic_ , as per usual. "Nothing's changed, then. Our welcome party ought to be around here, somewhere. I'm sure I saw a pack of rats running through the streets somewhere. At least they smell better than the people."

"Yeah, and where I'm heading, the rats are made of shit too, and there's not much of a distinction between them and the people. I want to see if _The Club_ reopened, and I need to meet up with some people here and there. I'd say I'm going to the heart of this half of the city, but it's closer to the asshole, so if you wanna join, that's where I'll be going." Cardin said that, looking at the three to get a better read on their expressions. Russel nodded lightly. He didn't look all too excited at the prospect, but he wasn't denying the idea. The team had long since learned the redhead's policy on ugly truths before pretty lies since the start of their semester.

"Sorry to disappoint, boss, but I need to get home and say hi to my aunt, make sure she's doing alright. I think it's a safe bet to say that Lionel's coming with." To that statement, the brunette raised a brow at the azure-haired specter, who merely looked at him before giving a single affirmative nod. Cardin looked at Russel again for confirmation, to which he received a simple ' _I'm in_ '. With that, he gave his final orders before the start of the long weekend. "Alright then. Split up, do what you gotta do and go where you need to go and meet back at the airport by Monday evening. Also, keep your scrolls active in case any shit goes down. We're Hunters now, and there's nothing that the crooks around here hate more than when some of their own suddenly get better living standards. Until then, I'll see you around."

"Aye-aye, sir." At Lionel's lazy drawl, the group chuckled before they parted ways. At Cardin's side was the green mohawked man, getting closer inland whereas the other two got closer to the coast. The bad side of the coast, at least. It was a rather strange experience, the more the giant thought about it. He had met Russel after coming _to_ the Valeport with an extremely poor impression of the man, and now they were coming back as teammates, partners more specifically. And it was near the end of the trimester too, so that had given him plenty of time to change his perspective on the other. He supposed he changed somewhat himself in that time as well, but not too much. Maybe he learned the less 'uncouth' way of getting his point across on certain matters. Problem was, he never cared to use it.

"So Russel, in which sewer did you grow up in?" When Cardin asked the question, for once he meant it without a hint of mockery. Months of working together had helped the smaller of the two learn to detect that, and he just shrugged. "Well, you know, here and there, there and here. It's not all that easy finding a stable position to live in, not around these parts."

"I hear that, but if that was the case, then you must have had some sort of family member alive, didn't you? The hounds at the Orphanage are good on sniffing up orphans with no adult siblings, and I don't remember you being there with the rest of us miserable shits." His grunts were met with evasive stares into the horizon or onto different broken neon signs for dirty shops. Russel scratched the back of his neck, goosepimples on the shaved parts of his head becoming notable, even with clothes that encased him more snugly instead of the shirt with the torn-off sleeves. Even his mohawk seemed taller, straighter. "It's… it's complicated, man. I'd rather not get into it."

"Is that right? I get it. No questions asked." Russel seemed relieved by Cardin's nonchalant dismissal of the subject, and he was right to be. The ginger knew better than anyone else that there were subjects you didn't touch, regardless of how badly he might have wanted to know the story behind it. So, they kept walking in, ironically, a comfortable silence. A definite far cry from the first time they had met. A few beggars asked for change, a few sketchy punks offered 'deals' on barely known underground clubs, but most people kept away from the pair. The Mace at his back and Russel's twin Daggers fortunately deterred too many people from coming near them.

His attention came to a man who happened to be walking their direction, well, not walking, but not limping either. He had a pair of crutches under his arms, one good leg setting the pace while the other one seemed to be bent the wrong way. There weren't any bruises on it and it wasn't bleeding either, meaning that the injury happened a long while back. He had a faint goatee, mostly short, ragged beard growing in certain spots of his cheeks while others remained barren. His brown hair was long, dirty and greasy, like all of his clothes, marking him as one of the more pitiable bums. When his eyes looked up to him, however, he recognized the golden orbs immediately. Looking to confirm, he took a closer note of the sides of his head and found that his hair had been indeed hiding his sagging, houndlike Faunus ears.

" _LYLE!_ It's been so _long_ since I've last seen you _my friend!_ How the hell are you?! Where have you been all this time?!" Cardin was grinning ear to ear, and if one had to choose on whether it was sincere or not, then it both was and wasn't. Cardin was happy, _ecstatic_ to see Lyle again, but for an entirely different reason than an old friend's welcome. Russel seemed like a fish out of the water, not sure on what to do, but Lyle's eyes widened in realization and fear. Mostly fear. "C-Cardin? Is that actually you? I-I'm sorry, I know I was a dumb little shit back then, but I swear that if I could take it all back, I–"

" _Nonsense,_ Lyle, you were just a little rough then! A little bit of horseplay, a little bit of wrestling, a little bit of knocking me out and taking my money, it's the same thing, _really._ " At that, he walked over to Lyle and wrapped a strong arm around the half-crippled man, bringing him to a crushing side hug. He yelped when the movement caused him to step too hard on his wrong leg, wincing in pain, which made Cardin joyously grin more cruelly. Somehow, the other man managed to escape from his grasp, getting into a position where his crutches sustained him so he could raise his hands up in defeat. "Cardin, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about what I did back then, and from just how good it looks like you're doing, there's probably no way I can make it up to you for all shit I… I broke my leg three years ago. I can't even get a job at a fucking fast food restaurant if they don't have a special handicap spot open for me. Nineteen years and this is all I could make of myself. Please, I'll go my way and you go yours, deal?"

Cardin's grin finally fell then, astounded by the sheer cowardice and stupid boldness of the man. His scowl came into form again, but the viciousness that fueled it was far more akin to the wrath he felt against the Ursa Major than he did at RWBY and JNPR that morning. It took every ounce of practiced restraint to keep himself from using his Semblance, a feat that he could activate it even when he was not even close to dying, but from pure anger alone. "Deal? _DEAL?!_ Alright, Lyle, we're going to make a deal, and here's how it's going to work out."

Before beginning, he gave the strongest jab he could to the Faunus's chest, just under his ribs, leaving him gasping for breath without being able to inhale. He had fallen back from the strength of his punch, making him fall flat-out on his back, crutches just out of his reach. His bad leg would have made him scream, but having no air in his lungs to spare, he could only yelp and whimper in pain. People around the street gasped at the spectacle, astounded by the cruelty inflicted on a defenseless man, but he didn't care at all. Instead, Cardin reached for his Mace, the great beast, swinging it around without a care in the world, a testament to his strength. He stood before the fallen, twitching body of Lyle, grabbing the Mace by the hilt in one hand and slapping the end of the pole against the other, the way one would menacingly do with a bat.

"Here's the deal, _Lyle._ I'm going to bash your skull in like a rotted pumpkin, the people here are gonna scream 'murder', the police department from this area will get caught up with the bureaucracy of it all and cover the news footage and how to make it look like an accident instead of actually investigating it on me, and by the week, everyone will forget your dumbass even existed in the first place. Deal?" Lyle had tears in his eyes, from fear or pain, Cardin wasn't sure, but it was evident that he understood that Cardin was the one in power now. It was almost an orgasmic experience for the giant. He held up shaky, weak hands, begging for the mercy he'd never find. A random man came in his way, arms outstretched, standing between Cardin and the fallen Faunus.

"I don't care who you are or what he's done to you, but the Lyle you're threatening is not the same Lyle who tormented you. Take a look at this poor man and _have some pity_ for God's sake! Are you really gonna tell me you're gonna kill him for some childhood squabbles?!" Cardin's right eye twitched vehemently at that. Without any hesitation, he freed a hand to grab the bald, middle-aged man by the front of his shirt and threw him as far away from the two as he could. He yelled, though he didn't have a bad landing, bystanders helping him up. A scratch on his head made him bleed from the right of his forehead, looking at the giant in fear now. He was the center of their attention now. He'd make good use of it. He raised the Mace with a lone hand, the shadow of death looming over the weeping Faunus. He swung down. " _CARDIN, PLEASE._ "

 _ **CLANG.**_

His arm shook from the Mace's vibrations, the interruption of his swing causing it to shake greatly. On one knee, just above Lyle's quivering body, Russel was using every bit of his strength to stop the Mace, both Daggers struggling to keep it from going down further. His partner's face was going from red to purple, an obvious amount of energy being exhausted at stopping the attack. When Cardin's surprise finally kicked in, he loosened up, no longer pressing down. Russel gasped a deep breath, regaining his strength and using it to push the Mace to the side without disarming his leader. Cardin remained a few more seconds looking at him in shock before the surprise dissolved into anger. He opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to formulate the right words in his head to express the burning heat he could feel in his veins at that very moment. "Russel… what the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you." His reply was simple, and as scared as he looked, he managed to not let his voice break and betray him. Cardin clenched his jaw tightly. "And _why_ are you stopping me?"

"Because you're my partner, and whatever this guy might have done to you before, it's not worth throwing the rest of your life away for. Yeah, I know the cops here are useless, but you're a Hunter now, and I don't think there's anything Ozpin can't catch if it's about students and illegal activities." He stood his ground, something that, very grudgingly at that moment, the man found himself respecting. Still, it wasn't anywhere near enough to quell his fury. "Russel… you don't know what I've fucking been through, you really don't, so don't ever dare to pretend to again, you hear me? Now move out of the fucking way before I _really_ get mad."

"Cardin, for Christ's sake, _look at him!_ He's poor as a street rat and has a shitty leg which he doesn't have the money to fix. _You_ on the other hand survived this place and now get to go to _Beacon_ , one of the best Hunter academies in the entire world, and you get to eat as much as me, Dove and Lionel put together every day! Don't throw it all away on _him_ , he's not worth it. And I do know because in the time I've met you, I know that if he had done something _really_ fucked up to you before, you would have hunted him down before you even stepped a foot on Beacon." Cardin was fuming by the end of it, not just because he was being kept from the crippled Faunus, but because Russel wasn't wrong in any of the assumptions he made. He took a deep breath and came to a decision. With a finger poking his partner's chest accusingly, he growled, " _Fine._ But if you _ever_ get in the way of my revenge again, you and I are done being partners, _understand._ "

"…Yes, sir." He looked relieved and saddened by that. Cardin couldn't care less about that. Giving a final glare to the quivering form of Lyle on the floor, still afraid that the giant might go back on his word, he decided to part with a final goodbye. "If I catch you around these parts ever again, I'll finish the job."

And with that, he turned around and stomped away angrily. He could hear a pair of footsteps trailing him from a distance, but one glare at Russel and he made exceedingly clear that he had no plans on having his company for the rest of the day. Alone, he made his way to The Club. _I need a drink– scratch that, I need a whole fucking bottle._

…

And a bottle he'd gotten. That was before he sparred with Junior. The exercise helped expel the booze in his system, and now he was taking another bottle. First one was sweet rum, now it was off with dry whiskey. On the rocks, they had certainly worked wonders. He found himself very thankful for said drinks when he finally found himself letting go of the day's… event. Now, he sat peacefully at the bar, sipping from his drink. Well, as peacefully as he could in a place with blaring music, drunkards dancing like maniacs and the general chaotic atmosphere that surrounded The Club. Finishing his second glass, he served himself a third glass from the bottle, a welcome-back present from one of the only people who remained bigger than him, but now not by much. The television above caught his attention.

"– _and so, the threat of the White Fang in Vale City's docks has been averted thanks to the timely action of a few freshmen Hunters, half of them from Beacon. Though Roman Torchwood is still at large, at least the City can sleep a little safer knowing that several of the Faunus ultranationalists have been put behind bars._ " Cardin raised a brow at the sight of Ruby, Blake, a monkey Faunus, and a fourth ginger who looked more like a doll than a real person. The giant grunted. _Goddammit. If I'd known the White Fang was gonna attack today, I'd have gone there too. Maybe there'd have been a hound Faunus I could have strangled there._

At some shuffling at his right he turned. Dressed in better clothes and trying to discreetly not meet his gaze, Russel put some lien on the table to order a drink. Cardin sighed. He stood up and outstretched his great arm to grab another glass and put some ice on it before serving some whiskey on it and handing it over to the other. A quiet ' _thanks_ ' let him know the young man was still timid around him. Instinctively, the two grabbed their glasses and took a good few gulps before putting them back down, though Russel made a face at the bitterness of the drink. It'd have made Cardin laugh if he wasn't in a grouchy mood at the time. "I'm sorry."

At that, Cardin truly did feel surprise, turning fully at his partner, who still looked at the drink he had in both hands. The giant was preparing to apologize himself. Before he could question the greenette, Russel continued. "I… I know what it's like, letting go of something like that. It feels impossible. No, that's not right. It's not impossible, but… you just don't _want_ to. You feel like they don't deserve it, that they need to felt how you felt, that they need to suffer like you suffered. Letting them off the hook just feels like… like… like you're being a coward. Like you're not doing what needs to be done.

"You asked me if I had any family members, why I was never sent to the Orphanage? Well… let's just say I lived with my parents. They… they weren't _bad_ people, not intentionally, but that was the problem. They were never conscious about what they did, what they fought about, the damage they had done. They were nicer when I was young, when it was just weed that they smoked. I think I was eight, maybe nine, when they started with crack. They were broke, they'd gotten laid off of work some months before that because they kept getting high at work, but their dealer offered them an in on the distribution business.

"When they did come home, they started getting paid less with money and more with hail. Coke was too expensive and they wanted to buy in large amounts to make it last through the week. I got beat at first, I just cried and didn't get why they did. They'd just tell me to 'shut up, or the cops will catch us'. I started hiding under the kitchen sink after that. I was small enough to fit. I got my break when I was… eleven and a half? They moved on to heroin, so when they got loaded, they were just lying on the floor, not punching each other or throwing things at me. I just tried to stay in school, Dove and Lionel helped me get through it, but I just didn't get why they didn't love me.

"Then, two years ago, they finally came to me and congratulated me for being a man, and that they were really proud of me, and that I was really the best son they could ever have. I should have known better, but I was just happy that they weren't on dope when they said it, and I wanted to let myself believe it. Then they asked if they could trust me, that if I could help them with this 'super important task' that only _I_ could do. I was as happy as I could be when I said yes. I didn't know that it was about going with them to one of the dealings since one of their partners had overdosed before the job." Russel took a break, cheeks red as he looked intensely at the whiskey in his hands. Shame was evident on his face, the most abashed he'd ever seen the man, in fact. For once, Cardin asked sympathetically, "What was the job?"

" _The mule._ " Under the red lights of the club, most people wouldn't have noticed, but Cardin had never fit into the category of most people. He could see the pinkish tint to Russel's soft blue eyes, the pain and embarrassment of the memories resurfacing taking a toll on him. Taking a deep breath and wiping his face, he downed the rest of his whiskey, which Cardin immediately refilled. He got a nod as thanks and waited patiently for the man to continue. It took five minutes of recollecting himself before he did. "When I learned what my job was, I got that they had been sweettalking me the entire time, but I thought it was too late to backdown from the deal, and the knife training I was getting at Combat School should have been enough against the average junkie if anything went wrong.

"When the day came, and I did what I had to do… you know that feeling when you know that there's something wrong, but you know it's gonna get worse? Well, when the time came for the exchange, we got busted by a bunch of cops and a Hunter. I was trying to fend off against the dealers that thought that we were rats, which my parents took as the perfect opportunity to escape. By the time I found out, I tried running away, barely making it past the cops until the Hunter caught up to me. I think when he found me, he saw right through me, because he told me to leave the place and never ever get involved with any shit like that again, so I never did. I just… I don't know how or why'd they've leave me like that. Their own son… The worst part is that I'll never know. I can guess, but there's always a chance that I might be wrong, and I can look for them, but I don't want to. I've left them behind, and now I'm at Beacon with my two good friends and a great leader. I don't wanna throw that away."

Cardin's hand broke the glass he'd been holding whiskey and droplets of blood staining his white button-up shirt and deep brown leather jacket. He looked at his hand as his Aura healed the weeping wound on his palm, calming himself enough to not do anything rash again. He was offered another glass with ice in it without any charge, perks of being best friends with The Club's owner. He served himself the last of the whiskey in the bottle, taking a sip before sighing tiredly. "Russel, I'm sorry that I was a cunt to you today. I can count with my fingers the amount of people who've actually managed to stop me from doing something stupid, and you're one of them. You're better than most people I've met, and I've met plenty. As for my shitfest of a life story… I'm not telling _yet._ I will tell you, but when we get back to Beacon so Dove and Lionel can be there too. If there're any people who deserve to know the truth, it's my friends."

Russel grinned at that, that full stupid smile he got when he was genuinely happy over something. If anyone ever asked, he'd blame it on the whiskey, but he allowed himself a small smile too. With his dirty, healed hand, he raised his glass in a toast. "To survivors."

"To survivors." Russel mimicked, both gulping down their whole drinks in seconds, growling at the intense bitterness that they left in their mouths. When they were done, Cardin pondered over the day they'd met, and their second day at Beacon. The more he thought about it, the dumber he felt for thinking that Russel being his partner was a coincidence. They'd been a surprisingly good fit before, but after hearing the other's story, he was sure now that Ozpin had a hand in putting them together. After all, he could have been paired with anyone from RWBY or JNPR or any of the other first years that made it there, but instead he got stuck with the kindred spirit. A part of him could only wonder how two people so _different_ could understand each other so well. In the end, he reached the conclusion that Russel and himself were two different breeds of the same kind.

 **Author's Notes: Well, there you have it. Russel's backstory, which explains why he is the way he is and why he may not seem as smart as some of the other characters. I love me some tragedy to spice a character's story. Besides that, this is officially the end of Volume 1 material, as the TV news meant to signal, and let's just say that the start of Volume 2 will be extremely important for the story to come. Either ways, I hope you've enjoyed, and I'll see you all next chapter (and if you could, do please review on what you liked or what you think could be improved).**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: Happy New Year, everybody! Sorry this took a bit longer than I expected. Turns out the chapter became so long I had to divide it into two. This one isn't too big nor too minor in terms of importance, but it's the first one that enters Volume 2 territory, and as of now it really starts to deviate into an AU from the main story-line. Either ways, hope you enjoy!**

 **Bright New Beginnings**

" _Cardin, c'mere." Cardin stopped beating the punching bag, the sand grating against itself as it restored the shape of the cylindrical sack. He turned halfway around, eyebrow raised at Junior. A month and a half had passed since the 'incident', and since then, the giant had assigned a pair of his workers to follow him at all times. It had caused havoc in the Orphanage at first, but Hei got really scary when he talked to the head of the place. Hell had been raised and dropped and him and Lucy ended up getting 'security detail'. At least until the rabbit Faunus could be found._

" _Sure, whadaya need?" His reply was fast, quick to follow the man. He'd been growing lately, he was finally eye to eye with Junior's belly button at his current height. Getting his Aura unlocked had changed the entire playing field for fighting. It was great because most people his age only had the spiritual shield as a way to resist an enemy's attacks. Cardin had been training hard with Hei for over two years now. The Aura gave him a great boost in surpassing his own limits and working twice as hard with its healing, though numerous ear tugs from the giant and Lucy taught him not to push too far._

 _And out of The Club's basement they went, up the stairs, through several guarded corridors an up to a very secure door at its end. He recognized the outside of Junior's office from all the times he'd been there. The large man opened the door at once and, once inside, held it open for him to walk through. Cardin muttered a simple 'thanks' and took a comfy seat at the chair on the other side of the desk. Hei walked giant, lumbering steps and quickly made it to his own. Even sitting down, he was still a head and a half taller than the ginger. "Cardin, do you know why you're here?"_

" _No, not really. What's this about, Hei?" He questioned simply. He was probably one of the very few, if not the only people in the building to get away with calling him by his name. The advantages of their friendship and his mentorship, he supposed. The dark brown eyes closed as his chest sighed in relief. "Good, then none of the bozos in charge of it let anything about this slip out in their drinks."_

" _Slip what out? What's going on?" Cardin raised a brow when Hei grabbed a small, golden key from his pocket and opened a classical-looking cabinet to his oaken desk. Once open, he took some items out, one of them an expensive Dust revolver, before he got a thick stack of papers and dropped it in front of him. The teen waited for him to finish putting everything back inside the drawer and closing it. He looked at the papers in the meantime, barely held together by a yellow folder and several rubber bands keeping it from opening up or altogether exploding._

" _Open it." Cardin did as the older man said, peeling off each ringlet of rubber, as if they were keys used to open a multilocked chest. Finally, after then or so very tense and not-so-elastic circles had been discarded, the folder could be opened. Cardin had his brows furrowed when he looked at Hei again. The man, on the other hand, had a very good poker face. He honestly couldn't read the giant if he tried. So, he opened the folder. Inside were a lot of official looking papers, most of them with letters so small one might have thought a colony of ants had been smudged against a pale sheet of paper. It was the header that caught his eye, that had him paralyzed. 'Official Approval for Adoption Permit: Hei Xiong'. He looked back at Hei, awestruck._

" _I've got two permits for adoption confirmed. I know you're both leaving that shithole of an orphanage when your sister turns eighteen, but that won't be all the way until the end of the year. Her birthday's on late November, if I remember right. Originally, I only had one permit, and I planned that to be my real gift for you on your birthday, since Lucy's nearly old enough anyways. After that fucking attempt on you, though, I put on a lot of pressure the good and the bad way to get a second one. I don't want either of you under that kind of risk." When he explained it all, Cardin simply kept silence, pondering over the news as if it were happening to someone else and not him. It felt too good to be true. "Wait, so you just have to pay to get a permit for an adoption?"_

" _Cardin, Cardin, Cardin. What was the golden rule of Old Vale City?" At Hei's chiding, Cardin droned. "Anyone can be bought for the right price or threatened with the right words."_

" _Same applies here. Might be the only good thing to ever come out of the system. Anyways, if I do adopt the two of you, I sure as hell wouldn't be some sort of dad for you, and you don't need to take my last name either. But… we could try to do some of the things families do… though honestly, I can't remember any right now. Point is, this is it. This is your ticket out of Schnee's Orphanage." Cardin let those words sink in slowly. He played them in his head again and again and again. Finally, a smile slowly started to form on his face, growing so much that it might have circled around his head if it stretched anymore. He got up and ran to the man's side to leap up and wrap his arms around him. Junior's chest rumbled with laughter, taking one of his great hands and ruffling his hair. When the hug was done, Cardin reached out for the papers, but Hei slammed his hand on them._

" _Now hold on, Cardin, if you just go back to the Orphanage and waltz right in with those papers, whadaya think the other orphans will do to you, or worse, the workers?" Cardin immediately retracted his hand and nodded dutifully. Hei was right, the papers were safest with him, and the redhead would not risk their chance at freedom in any way. Still, the smile did not leave his face, excitement still making him glow in spirit. Hei placed a hand on his shoulder with a half stern face. "Alright now, but first you tell your sister, alright? She's the oldest one, and she gets to make the final call. I doubt she'll say no, but you need to run that by her anyways."_

" _Sure, I'll tell her as soon as I get back to the Orphanage!" Before Hei could speak anymore, he was left with his mouth open as Cardin sprinted off and out of his office. Running down the stairs, he could hear the echoes of the giant's hearty laughter. He bit the great big strap of his right gauntlet, taking the great red punching glove off as he put said hand between his knees to free it. The left glove came off easier with his hand freed, running with the fighting equipment under his arm and off to where he left his clothes bag at. Getting them in, looking for a shirt and putting it on, he ran out, saying some goodbyes here and there to the recognizable friendly faces in The Club._

 _And so he ran, past the police officers dozing off, past the dealers settling business, by the bums begging on the streets. He made it all the way to the street where the hellish grey building stood, only rather than go into the ascetic confines, he strayed a bit from the main entrance. There was a group of the resident orphans in a circle where the few steps up leading to the double doors, laughing and pointing at something in the center. Cardin frowned. New blood. He heard one of the bigger teens mocking threateningly. "So, you think you can just come in here and become the queens of Vale, is that it? Is that what you are? The brand new fucking queens?"_

" _N-no, we're not, we–" The newcomer's voice was cut off as one of the older girls leaned in and slapped her over her head. The younger ones took advantage of the one downed to spit on her and the other rookie that had the terrible luck of winding up in the Orphanage. He heard some silent whimpers from the two. It prompted the others to laugh again, half of them going into the building while the others took longer to leave. One of the last ones to leave stepped real close to the girls, bent over so her face was real close to theirs. "You're our new bitches, you hear that, pretty gals? You're our fucking bitches, and if you try anything against us, you're dead."_

 _One final gurgle and projectile shot of saliva for the two downed girls and the last of the orphans ran up the stairs with the rest of her friends. The pair were pretty, raven-haired and green-eyed. They were twins, and the only way he could tell the two apart was from their different haircuts and dress colors. And their wounds. The one in red, the one who cried more silently but much more desolately, had a broken nose and was bleeding on the right brow. Red on red. The one in white was louder, but her sobs were angrier and spiteful, her equally pretty features marred as her sister's, though she had her left eye blackened and the corner of her right jaw green and mauve with another bruise._

" _Y-you want to spit on us, beat us? Just do it and-and be done with it, y-you filthy pig!" The one in white glared at him with her bright green eyes. Mostly with her right eye, her left was almost swollen shut. The one in her arms looked at him, a silent beg for mercy in her features. Cardin raised his brow at the two. They had gone especially rough on them. The teen just raised his hands slowly and carefully, coming close enough to them to be at a more comfortable talking distance with them without being threatening. "No, no, I ain't here for that. I was just gonna head for my room. How come you're new here?"_

" _Oh, we got sent here for a summer trip by our parents. Why do you think we're here?!" Her shout only led to more heaving weeps from her form while her sister continued to cry silently. Cardin didn't want to ask more, but from how pretty their dresses were, he could only assume their parents had been rich or nobles of some kind if they looked that much richer than everyone else. That answered the question as to why the others were beating them relentlessly. He was actually surprised for a moment. For once in his life, he saw not one, but two different people that were much, much worse off than him. He bit his bottom lip._

 _Freedom was his and Lucy's. They had waited and survived years of living in the Orphanage. Hei's gift was their right, the thing they deserved the most. But Cardin frowned when he remembered Aurum Cor. He had hated her intruding in their lives, even if Lucy wanted them with them, and much as he didn't want to admit it, the strange little blonde had grown on him. Even if he wanted to get himself and Lucy out of there, the older ginger would only accept the little one taking that ticket out of the hellish place. Even if everything had gone right, the two of them wouldn't have simply left and forgotten about the terrible place owned by the Schnees. Cardin sighed. At least he only had to wait less than a year for Lucy to get them out._

" _Come with me." The two stopped weeping to stop and look at him incredulously, the one in red in fear and the one in white in anger. Cardin groaned. "Look, if you wanna stay here and wait for those assholes in the Orphanage to get you again, go ahead. If you want a chance to live without having to look twice over your shoulder everywhere you go, grab your stuff and come with me. Trust me, it's much, much better than any life you can get in that hell, I give you my word."_

 _The two stayed in place, and for a second, Cardin reconsidered trying to convince Lucy to take advantage of Hei's proposal. Then the twins turned to one another. The one in white shook her head vigorously, and Cardin grunted internally, not surprised and not too pitiful of the girl's predicaments. The on in red, however, surprised the two when she nodded, before getting up, composing herself a little bit and grabbing her suitcase to walk up to Cardin and waiting. Cardin nodded at her before he looked at the other one. She gave him a pathetically angry glare in a poor attempt to intimidate him before she joined her other half. And with that, he took off, the two in tow as he retraced every step of the way back._

 _Twist and turns led them back to The Club, and upon looking at the building, the pair looked like they were ready to turn back. Cardin simply held the door open for them and made a motion of his head at the other side. The two hesitated once more before going inside, deciding that whatever was inside couldn't be worse than the whole of their teens in Schnee's Orphanage for the Poor and the Unfortunate. The ginger, a head taller than them, fumed internally, silently jealous of the two's luck. But, he'd go through with the decision he made. Both Lucy and Hei taught him that saying something and going through was one of the most important things in life. The power of one's word was worth more than money, they said._

 _And so, the two kept their heads down, many of the workers giving Cardin curious looks about the unfortunate stragglers he brought into Junior's place of work. He made the gesture and they in return didn't ask. Walking up the stairs back outside the giant's office, the three waited outside the door. Cardin was closest, and he mentally prepared himself for the conversation and argument to come. He shook his head. The sooner it was done, the sooner he could forget about the whole deal in the first place, the sooner he could get back to the last shitty months at the institute he had left. He turned to the twins. "Wait here."_

 _He opened the door, making Hei look up from some papers from his work in surprise. At a simple 'wow, that was fast', Cardin shook his head. He gave one last look at the midnight-haired sisters behind him before taking a moment to realize how stupid his idea was in the first place. He internally smacked himself in the head. He gave his word, he was gonna follow through. So, he looked at Junior and began to tell the tale of the two, the giant intrigued and sympathetic at the story. Then he told him his grand idea._

" _Cardin. You can't be fucking serious, for Christ's sake. Do you even know their names?!" Cardin flinched at that. Hei didn't lecture him unless he was onto something dumb or crazy. He guessed in this case it was both. But there was a gut feeling in him that told him it was dumb and crazy, but also right. It was what led him to give his word in the first place. So, he simply turned his head halfway back to the two of them. "What're your names, by the way?"_

" _Melanie Malachite."_

" _M-Miltiades Malachite."_

" _There you go, they're Melanie and Miltiades Malachite. It can't be that hard to switch my profile and Lucy's for theirs, right?" Junior groaned and put his head in his hands. He stayed like that for a while before lifting his face and giving him a scrutinizing gaze. He opened his mouth to talk, but halfway through closed it. He genuinely seemed lost for words. He tried again and failed again. With a sharp inhale of his nose, he pinched its bridge with his forefinger and his thumb before closing his eyes and humming steadily. His voice finally reached a peaceful quiet. With a far more worn out tone, he simply asked. "Alright, Cardin, they're the Malachite sisters. Now, can you tell me why, after being on the shit end of everything that's had to do with the Orphanage almost all your life, would you give up your place out of that shithole for a pair of girls you don't even know? I deserve as much since, unless you forgot, I'm the one who's adopting."_

 _Cardin gave the morose twins one final look, furrowing his brows and wondering why he had done it as well. Sure, there was the excuse in his head that Lucy wouldn't take it, but then again, he and Aury could have escaped and simply waited until Lucy turned eighteen for the three to be together again. It was the easier way, and he didn't take it. Finally, he came to an answer. "Because I think they might just be the two people who are capable of having worse than I've had it my whole life in the Orphanage. You see them, Junior? That was their first day, not their week, their first day. You know how it goes, you know it gets worse. Besides, I've got what? Nine months left, give or take a few weeks? They need this more than I do, Hei, and they sure as hell could use some training under you."_

 _Hei finally opened his eyes and let his two brown orbs look hard against his own indigo-shaded globes. A few minutes of silence was left between the two, the girls just outside the office looking intently and definitely intrigued by the conversation. The giant then switched his gaze to the sisters, small, beaten, cold, afraid. He breathed heavily and bobbed his head. "Alright. I'll do it."_

Yang put her hands on her knees, panting. She would have been laughing if she weren't so exhausted by the food fight, especially her… _landing_. _No, that wasn't a food fight, that was a cuisine battle royale!_ When she saw Team JNPR fall out of the wall, covered in all sorts of meals that had been jumbled up into a grand projectile by her little sister, she magically found the breath she needed to cackle madly. Everyone was laughing, even while they nursed the bruises from the teams' quarrel. Even Miss-Stick-Up-Her-Butt had a smile on her face.

When she heard the door opening, she bolted upright, half afraid Goodwitch had finally come to give them detention. From the hustling she heard behind her, she could tell the others were nervous, but that posture relaxed and deflated when said teacher wasn't there. Sun and some attractive blue-haired friend of his were there, the former smiling, wide-eyed at the sight while the latter was simply slack-jawed at the spectacle. The blonde monkey-Faunus chuckled and slapped his friend in the back. "See, Neptune? Told you they were fun!"

"You don't say… wouldn't you say this is a bit much though?" Blue-haired 'Neptune' smiled, even as he said those words, but Sun kept his grin wide open and shook his head fiercely. There was a wave of relief that washed over Blake, one that Yang had been fortunate enough to catch, one she would _definitely_ not let the Faunus live down. JNPR had finally picked themselves up, trying to wipe what little of the food-induced grime that covered their bodies unsuccessfully before joining RWBY, fun-loving expressions as present as was in the winning group. A pair of heavy footsteps brought their attention, and as they grew closer the mood died down. The words were the killing blow on the fun.

"Second semester in, and the lot of you had a… _food fight?_ " Those words alone wiped their smiles away, drowned any sort of giggles the ten had shared over the events that had recently occurred. Cardin walked in the cafeteria, eyes wide and incredulous, looking at the eight of them with genuine disgust. It was a degrading sensation, one Yang did not like feeling, but no one commented on the giant's unprecedented and unwanted appearance.

All eyes were on him as he picked up a stray chicken leg that had miraculously survived the brawl, still ruined by the fact that it was on the not-so-clean floor. He looked at the fried-brown covering to the white meat over the bones, so intensely that he might have looked like a philosopher under different circumstances. The derisive look in his eyes was what had them paralyzed. "…I would have skinned any one of you alive just for a fucking chicken wing. And here you are, wasting it and everything else like the bunch of stupid bastards you are. Fuck if I know why I expected any different."

" _Okay, okay,_ so _maybe_ they wasted a _little_ food, but do you really have to just come up and–"

" _Fuck off._ " Cardin's curt shout immediately drowned out Neptune's protest, and Sun stayed out of the giant's way, giving him a silent glare. Yang felt her heart at her ears. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so tense because someone else was mad. Then again, Cardin wasn't just 'someone'. When the two visitors backed down and backed away, the leader of CRDL looked at the eight with a disgusted scowl before it turned to a viciously spiteful grin. "But you know what's the richest part? That you eight, _every last one_ of you eight took a part in this. It's just _too fucking good._ "

He walked closer, an angry, scornful smile in place as he did. A good portion of the eight shrank under his immense shadow as he got closer, silent when he continued his speech. "Well, I can't say I didn't expect this from most of you. I mean, I already knew Little Red was a child, but I thought she was mentally a fifteen-year-old, not a _five-year-old_. Goldie's is the same stupid bimbo she was on the first day of classes, so I can't blame her for being any different. Valkyrie's hardly any different, but she's louder than half the whores in Old Vale City, which makes her worse. Then some fucking prudish princess like Schnee sure as hell wouldn't know anything about what food's worth in the real world. And Jauney-boy… you look _perfect_ where you are right now. And for a second, I thought Nikos was gonna shove that spear of hers up your ass and set you straight."

" _Hey!_ Don't talk to them that way! They wasted some food, sure, but what the hell's wrong with having a little fun, huh? There's plenty of worse things than–"

" _FUCK OFF!_ " Cardin's roar made everyone flinch, or in Ruby and Jaune's case, jump. Sun had worked up the nerve and courage to grab the giant's arm, but that had sent him flying back with a simple shove. For a moment, Yang wondered if his much more aggressive response was because he was interrupted again, because a stranger touched him, or because the blonde was a Faunus. Her bet was on a mixture of the three. One way or another, Sun was on the floor, looking absolutely bewildered and winded, without any intent on intervening further on the ginger's rant.

It had certainly worked on Yang, who was pissed on her sister's and her own's behalf on his insults against them. She'd wanted to say something back, or preferably fight him, but there was a burning sensation at the bottom of her stomach that kept her silently scowling. She sure as hell wouldn't admit to the guilty feeling, not to _him_. Anyone else and it might have been a different story. When he turned to them again, he was smiling. Not just any type, but the smile he got when he was gonna be vicious. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the _crown trinity._ See, I expected this kind of shit from the rest of you, but _you_ three… you three sunk real fucking low, didn't you?

"Ren Lie, the silent fighter, the _good Samaritan,_ the guy who puts up with everyone's shit and somehow finds the silver lining to every moronic spasm your friends have. Anyone ever tell you how great you are? How you are just the _sweetest_ fruit in the basket? And that's not all, folks, our hero is an orphan, a _fucking orphan_ , ladies and gentlemen. Our mute champion had no parents and somehow, he _still_ is the posterchild of virtue. But… you're much more stupid and selfish than people give you credit for, maybe even more. For all that bullshit goodness, you still just wasted an entire school's opening banquet, didn't you? Or at least had a hand in it. Guess there's not much hope for you, then. I thought dead parents might have given you the least bit of humility, you dumb cunt."

It shocked them beyond all doubt to hear Ren, of all people, being the first to receive the hateful tirade from Cardin. Nora nearly lashed out at the mention of Ren being an orphan, more so at the blunter mention of dead parents, but Ren held her back with a grip of steel. He was angry, there was no doubting that, even for someone as peaceful as him, but his reluctance was stronger. Cardin's cruelty wasn't savage or senseless, it was smart enough to hit right home with him. It was all bitterer by the fact that there was a measure of truth to his words. Yang, and by extension the rest of RWBY tensed up when he turned to the secret Faunus, at the ready to stop the giant from doing anything more than ranting.

"Then we have Blake Belladonna. You know, for a second I thought you were one of the few people around here who understood how the world worked, one of the only students who might actually not live in a fantasy world filled with rainbows and horseshit. But for all the shit you gave her, you still became friends with Schnee, didn't you? You thought I forgot the day when we met, our first encounter, the shit you and I said about that family of cunts? No, you don't, do you? No. Because here you are, looking so proud and full of yourself about how you were part of the winning team. Not in a practice bout, not in a real battle. In. A fucking. _Food fight._ " Blake had far fewer reservations about giving the man spiteful looks, but ultimately she suffered the same guilt that kept her from lashing out at him. Cardin smiled wide when he looked at the remaining unmentioned student.

"And finally, here she is, the one and only, the goddess in the flesh, _Pyrrha fucking Nikos._ I don't think I've ever met anyone half as righteous as you in my life. Most people aren't that gullible or innocent, but somehow, _you are._ You just have an aura of… just pure _hypocrisy._ You are so fucking conceited about who and what you are, about how you're just above everyone else, and you're so blind to it that you think it's _your_ responsibility to help enlighten the rest of us. Tell me something, how the hell do you fight so good without any ribs? When do you get the time to train when you spend every free hour licking your own pussy? You and that fucking shit-eating grin of yours, smiling for your own brand of cereal, pretending that you care about others, about the world. You sure are doing plenty wasting a whole month's chow, let me tell you that right now.

"Every one of you mock me, insult me behind my back. Let me guess. 'Cardin's a brute', or 'Cardin's dumber than a sack of shit'. You know what? You're right about that, about both. But at least _I'm_ aware of what I _am_ and _am not._ Unlike you bastards, I get to sleep with myself at night in peace, because I don't pretend that you can make _perfume_ out of _my shit._ And I'd be dead _long_ before you'd catch me _wasting food!_ " At his final words, he threw the wing in his hand at the floor in front of them. The white of his eyes had turn a hazy pink, a notable vein in his neck, anger oozing from his form. He had to take a few breaths to calm down, using his clean hand to straighten his school uniform. He turned around and marched away, viciously kicking a turned table that was in his way, sending it to the other side of the hall. He was almost out when the person Yang initially feared would show up came.

"And _what_ is the meaning of this?! Is this a place for Hunters or for children?! And you stop right there, _Mister Winchester!_ Don't think for a second that you're walking out here scot-free. Do you have any idea how hard the cooks worked for the welcoming feast?!" Yang, amongst a few of her braver friends, chuckled under her breath at Goodwitch blocking Cardin's way out with her riding crop. He turned to her wildly at that, far more liberal in visual shows of rage. He turned to them and gave the group a wrathful but expectant glare. Not one of them spoke up, though Yang stole a look at Ruby and Jaune, who had worried looks. When Cardin looked back at her, he pointed at them. "You think I had anything to do with _this shit?!_ "

" _Watch the language!_ And show me your hand. _Your right hand._ " Cardin gawked at her, surprised, before he looked at his own hand. It was far cleaner than the rest of them, but the grease from the discarded peace of chicken might as well have made him out to be another 'culprit' of the crime scene. He gawked, actually _gawked_ at the accusation. But, as was his custom, he grinned and laughed. Grinned and laughed mockingly. When he stopped, he looked at a _very_ irritated Goodwitch. "You think _I_ had anything to do with this?! You think _I'd_ waste my time with these retards having a _food fight?!_ You know what, I don't feel like putting with this shit today. Find someone else to fuck over in your spare time."

" _Stop right there, young man!_ You are _not_ going anywhere without punishment for what happened here and you _will_ be expelled the next time you talk to a professor without any kind of respect, so you better _watch your mouth!_ " At her shout, something that made them all flinch having never seen her that mad before, Cardin laughed again. Only this time, it was actually _genuine_ , like he found the whole situation amusing. It left an immeasurable tension in the hall, RWBY and JNPR because they understood the intensity of a confrontation between the two, and Sun and Neptune because they looked like they desperately wanted to leave but the pair were blocking their way. Cardin bent over so his face was inches from the blond teacher's own, an act that made the rest of them nervously wonder what she would do.

"I should be mad, _I really should be,_ but this is too good. You thought I _actually_ valued my time here as if it were a right and not a privilege? You think I didn't count _every_ meal, _every_ night under a stable roof with a soft bed as if it were my last? You think I took ANY of this for granted? Expelled? Fuck that, _I quit._ It's been fun while it's lasted. At least now I won't have to listen to your self-serving, self-rewarding bullshit that doesn't translate to the real world." When he was on the verge of walking out, Goodwitch withdrew her whip and held him in place with her Telekinesis. That made him growl dangerously. "Let. Fucking. _Go._ "

"Glynda, _enough._ " The simple, clear, _commanding_ voice of Ozpin resonated through the hall, silent as it was. The blonde professor's eyes widened immediately at the headmaster's words. She opened her mouth to argue with him, as she usually did, but Yang's eyes widened at how quickly she dropped the subject when he gave her a very direct gaze. Cardin was released from his bounds, rubbing his wrists as he did. He gave a poisonous glare to the professor as she barked, "Mister Winchester here was planning on escaping from punishment from the extreme _food fight_ he engaged in along with teams RWBY and JNPR, professor, I _hardly_ think that–"

"He took no part in it." Yang raised her brows. _Does he trust HIM more than the rest of us now?_ There was such a sureness in Ozpin's tone that even Cardin looked surprised by it. When the junior professor gave him a look asking for explanation, he turned his hazel eyes upon them. For the second time that day, the blonde warrior, along with the rest of her friends, felt her stomach sink in no small amount of anxiety and guilt. His walk was slow, cane sounding loud and clear for every pair of steps he took, a sensation that Yang hated. Finally it ended, and the brawler of the team looked up to find him in front of them, Goodwitch just behind him, though far more silently. "I'm going to ask this once and _only_ once, and I'd like you all to remember how dire the consequences can be for lying to the principal of this academy. Did Mister Winchester partake or not in this food fight?"

Yang was sure that if the eight were angry enough, they could have all nodded their heads, with the single purpose of dragging the hateful giant down to their level. But Ozpin's look was soul-burning, and any hesitation from so much as _one_ of her group would have given them away immediately. Yang shook her head without a second doubt. So did the rest. Ozpin looked at Goodwitch behind him, who looked surprised by the collective answer. "As you can see, Glynda, Mister Winchester took no part of this childish notion. I believe apologies are due."

Now the professor had her eyes bulging, cheeks scarlet in the shame and embarrassment of being forced to say sorry. Her pleading words died in her throat when she looked at Ozpin's definitive gaze, tranquil yet unyielding. She tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear, what little escaped her bun, before she turned to the gargantuan ginger. He had his arms crossed, and in spite of his obviously still present anger, he had a victorious grin on his face as well. "Mister Winchester… I would like to apologize for my error in assuming you had taken part in this."

He chuckled much more silently now, though there was no mirth on his face, only wrath. That much Yang could tell by the pulsating vein on his forehead and the one at his throat. He simply looked at her with that grudgeful smile of his before turning around to walk away. Ozpin stopped him as well. "Mr. Winchester, you too owe the professor an apology. She might have been in the wrong to accuse her, but your lack of respect to her position and authority just now warrants as much regret as she feels at this moment."

"…Fine. _I'm sorry, Professor Goodwitch._ Am I done here now?" He uttered the words through gritted teeth, neck and ears red in anger. Angry as he was, he had kept his end of the bargain, and Ozpin gave an affirmative nod. The giant stormed off, this time without anyone to stop him or delay his exit. The headmaster looked around, inspecting the 'ruins' of the mess hall, making the group feel more self-conscious the colder his look got. "I believe I can handle it from here, Glynda. As for you, gentlemen, you'll be departing as well. These are Beacon matters, and I'll see to them myself."

Neptune gave them an awkward half-frown which said ' _good luck_ ' while Sun gave them a far more sympathetic and apologetic face. They followed Goodwitch's steps out of the mess hall, though they headed the opposite direction of the professor's. Now they were alone with the headmaster, and immediately the eight were much more frightened at the idea of the consequences that he'd have in store for them. Yang's stomach sank when his fingers went under his glasses just so he could very tiredly rub the bridge of his nose, no small amount of frustration in his eyes when he opened them again to look at their lot. "You know, I thought it above _my_ students the idea of wasting time and effort in an activity as stupid as this. Two weeks of preparation went into making this banquet for the entire student body and the faculty, all wasted in one simple afternoon."

"Professor, _I'm really sorry._ It's my fault, _I started it._ Please don't punish my team or JNPR's for this. I deserve the punishments alone." For a second, Yang wanted nothing more than to kiss her little sister for her bravery and maturity in the situation they were in. The next second, she wanted to slap her on the back of the head for risking her stay in Beacon with her confession. Still, Yang grew frustrated at the feeling of helplessness that overwhelmed her at the moment. Ozpin looked at her before walking slowly again towards her, _tap tap_ of his cane marking his walk towards her. Ruby shrank under his scrutinizing glare. "You're sorry, is that right? Does your feeling sorry undo the damage that was done?"

" _No._ " Ruby looked at the ground, unable to look him in the eyes any longer. Ozpin stayed for a good minute like that longer, so much Yang thought she would give into insulting him so she'd be in trouble and he'd get off her sister, and then he walked back to where he could face the eight. "Thought so. And even if you did instigate, all eight took _tremendous_ part in this childish endeavor to waste our cooks' efforts and lower the standards this academy has for its students. If any of you think yourselves exempt from the punishment this action will merit, then you will find yourselves with ill-fated misfortune."

"Professor Ozpin, are we getting detention?" Yang asked half in fear of the answer, half sure that his answer would confirm her doubts for the wrong reasons. "Have you ever gotten involved in food fights before, Miss Xiao Long?"

Her cheeks went pink. "Yes, sir."

"And have you gotten detention for them?"

They went from pink to red. " _Yes, sir._ "

"Then it's not a very effective punishment now, is it?" The crudeness of his tone actually had Yang blushing ashamed. The last man who had managed that had been her father, the only time she'd ever brought a boy to her bed when Ruby was still to young to be fully immersed in that world. Since then, the blonde had very much enjoyed having forgotten what that felt like. Instead, she was feeling it again, though now she had the fear that the headmaster's punishment would involve something big enough to get their dad involved. _That_ wouldn't end well. Everything went silent when Weiss spoke up. "Professor Ozpin, sir, what we did was wrong, you're right about that, but _what about Cardin?_ He's been crass to us and an outright savage in several occasions to the rest of the student body, and the one time _we_ get involved in something childish, _we_ get punished and _he_ gets to walk free."

"Has he been confrontational?" His question was immediate, making Weiss snap back with a measure of anxiety. "At times, he has, sir."

"Has he broken any particular rules, or has he just been intimidating?" Weiss opened her mouth to speak, and Yang could tell she was thinking of the incidents with Jaune, but one look from the blue-eyed Arc was enough to tell the princess to drop it. "… _Just intimidating,_ sir."

"And have you used the arena to challenge him?" Ozpin's questions were made so simply, Yang felt stupid just in the process of finding an answer, even when she wasn't the one on the spot. "…No, sir. But he was cruel and insulted us before you arrived here, sir. If professor Goodwitch deserved an apology, don't we deserve one as well?!"

"And what did he say to you that warranted an apology?" Ozpin's question wasn't one that asked for an answer anymore. It was rhetorical, the kind adults used when children were being stubborn. "I heard what he said, before Glynda walked through those doors. Oh, he did insult you, but for that matter, you could insult him back. If you think I'll settle disputes of students badmouthing each other, you'll have better luck returning to kindergarten and asking that of your professors there. Perhaps you expect me to defend you because he disrespected you and not one of you was able to retort back. If that is the case, then you ought to understand that in this situation, _you_ were in the wrong and _he_ was in the right for that to have happened. Tell me, Miss Schnee, what does it say about the lot of you, if the very 'savage', as you call him, is in the right enough to curse you deservingly? If the 'savage' marks a low for the rest of you, what does it make you for him to have the moral higher ground than you?"

For a second, Yang actually felt _winded_ at his words. The low blow that dealt the idea of Cardin _actually_ being in the right to insult the lot of them like he did had her shocked. Yang would have said something about Jaune's suffering at the ginger's hands would only make things worse. Cardin would simply say the blonde faked his way into the academy, and at that, maybe even Ozpin would say the giant had been in the right to treat him like he did. The tall, silent specter of a headmaster looked around the room one final time before speaking up. "You're going to start fixing your situation by cleaning _all_ of this up, and repairing the materials and the tables and the walls that you need to. Glynda will provide the materials necessary for the job. When you're done, you'll come to my office. Come Friday, you'll start your amends for this."

 **Author's Notes: Now, there's probably a few of you that would argue that this whole situation was blown out of proportion, but it does have a much bigger significance in this fic than it would in the actual show (you'll see why next chapter). Besides, according to the wiki, the inspiration for Ozpin's character was Tywin Lannister, which is absolutely unbelievable (thinking he's based off of Dumbledore would make infinitely more sense), so if anything, I'm having him live up to his inspiration's standards. Beyond that, I hope you enjoyed Cardin's Samaritanism in this chapter's flashback, and I hope you get better aquainted with Yang (this chapter is the official show of the second POV of this story). All in all, I hope you enjoyed, I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can and review what you think was done right and what needs improvement.**

 **The Almighty Afroduck,**

 **All Hail**


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